Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The elec­tion bell is ahead!

The Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment is poised to launch its gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign with the planned pre­sen­ta­tion of its can­di­dates at Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain, on Sun­day (March 16), when Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley's res­ig­na­tion will be con­firmed - and a gen­er­al elec­tion date is ex­pect­ed soon af­ter.

Gov­ern­ment sources last evening con­firmed the process of mo­bil­is­ing the par­ty was dis­cussed at yes­ter­day's Cab­i­net meet­ing and work is in train. Dis­cus­sions were al­so on at Bal­isi­er House af­ter Cab­i­net met.

Row­ley an­nounced on Jan­u­ary 3 that he would be re­sign­ing as Prime Min­is­ter and would not be con­test­ing the Diego Mar­tin West seat he's held since 1991. He re­cent­ly gave March 16 as his res­ig­na­tion date.

Row­ley went to the US last Thurs­day on pri­vate busi­ness. He is due back on Sun­day, par­ty of­fi­cials added.

Af­ter his re­turn, next week, Row­ley is ex­pect­ed to pre­side over the launch of cer­tain sig­na­ture projects, in­clud­ing the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal's Cen­tral Block on Mon­day com­ing, and the To­ba­go Air­port Ter­mi­nal project next Sat­ur­day.

Fol­low­ing this, re­li­able sources said plans are in the works for the par­ty's cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive next Sun­day (March 16) to rat­i­fy and en­dorse the PNM's gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­dates. They will then be pre­sent­ed at Wood­ford Square. Sources pro­ject­ed that Row­ley will then speak and con­firm that he has re­signed.

The PNM has a tra­di­tion of launch­ing its gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign by rat­i­fy­ing its can­di­dates at City Hall, Port-of-Spain and then pre­sent­ing them at Wood­ford Square, with an ad­dress by the par­ty's leader.

In this sce­nario, sources said, once all goes ac­cord­ing to plan, an elec­tion date - pos­si­bly April 28 - could ar­rive six weeks lat­er. That date was be­ing spec­u­lat­ed in PNM cir­cles re­cent­ly. The curent term is due to be com­plet­ed of­fi­cial­ly at the end of Au­gust.

With a res­ig­na­tion de­liv­ered by Row­ley, it is ex­pect­ed that prime min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Stu­art Young will sub­se­quent­ly be giv­en the au­thor­i­ty to func­tion - in­clud­ing the au­thor­i­ty to ad­vise the Pres­i­dent on a date for a gen­er­al elec­tion.

The let­ter signed by all of the PNM's MPs sup­port­ing Young as Prime Min­is­ter, is ex­pect­ed to be sent to the Pres­i­dent next Sun­day morn­ing, ahead of the PNM's event.

The PNM has se­lect­ed prospec­tive can­di­dates so far for 40 con­stituen­cies out of 41.

The par­ty still has to com­plete the process for a can­di­date for the Tabaquite con­stituen­cy, af­ter the ini­tial prospect - Anil Ramjit - was dropped. The Tabaquite con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive was man­dat­ed by the par­ty on Feb­ru­ary 17 to seek new nom­i­nees to present in two weeks from that date.

The unit made ap­proach­es to a hand­ful of peo­ple. Yes­ter­day, PNM Tabaquite con­stituen­cy chair­man Cur­tis Shade said the nom­i­nee will be an air host­ess. He couldn't say when screen­ing will be done, since he not­ed that the Prime Min­is­ter - who heads the screen­ing team - is out of the coun­try.

Par­ty of­fi­cials said Tabaquite should be com­plet­ed "very soon...maybe next week."

UNC an­nounc­ing more can­di­dates soon

Mean­while, the Op­po­si­tion - which has been prepar­ing for an April 28 elec­tion date - will soon be an­nounc­ing more can­di­dates, in­clud­ing for Moru­ga/Table­land and PNM-held ar­eas in the East-West cor­ri­dor.

UNC of­fi­cials said the par­ty is ex­pect­ed to re­sume Mon­day night fo­rums next Mon­day in Moru­ga, where speak­ers will be head­ed by UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad- Bisses­sar. The UNC, which will con­test in 39 Trinidad con­stituen­cies out of the 41 over­all, com­plet­ed screen­ing last week. The par­ty has so far an­nounced eight can­di­dates.

Mean­while, the Con­gress of the Peo­ple will hold its "Reignite!" meet­ing to­mor­row at its Curepe of­fice. For­mer leader (now re­gion­al guide) Kirt Sin­nette said ad­dress­es will be de­liv­ered by him­self and leader Prakash Ra­mad­har.

Sin­nette said the par­ty has been mak­ing calls to reach out to peo­ple and there are “around 300 live COP mem­bers.”

He added, "We're look­ing out on Sat­ur­day for a gath­er­ing of about 500 and more. We ex­pect to have for­mer COP mem­bers who have seen it fit to re­turn from wher­ev­er they were."

He couldn't say if for­mer leader Win­ston Dook­er­an - whom the par­ty in­vit­ed to the meet­ing - would at­tend. Sin­nette said the COP doesn't have elec­tion can­di­dates yet.

Mean­while, the NTA/HOPE/CRN coali­tion will be launched via its pub­lic meet­ing next Wednes­day at NTA's Champs Fleurs com­pound.

HOPE chair­man Steve Al­varez said speak­ers will be HOPE leader Tim­o­thy Hamel-Smith, deputy leader Karen Nunez-Tesheira, him­self and NTA leader Gary Grif­fith. Al­varez said HOPE deputy leader Louis Lee Sing is deal­ing with some per­son­al is­sues.

HOPE will like­ly an­nounce the seats it plans con­test­ing. The NTA al­so has can­di­dates for seats it will be con­test­ing.