Gail Alexan­der

Most Op­po­si­tion UNC Sen­a­tors and MPs won’t be at­tend­ing Mon­day’s in­au­gu­ra­tion of in­com­ing Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo - but UNC MP Rush­ton Paray in­tends to at­tend once he re­ceives the for­mal in­vi­ta­tion that was to be seen.

Paray con­firmed he hadn’t re­ceived it up to yes­ter­day, how­ev­er.

The in­au­gu­ra­tion of Kan­ga­loo as T&T’s sev­enth Pres­i­dent will take place at the Grand Stand of the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain on Mon­day morn­ing. Guests must be seat­ed by 9.30 am.

The ac­tu­al swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny is be­tween 10-10.30 am. All Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment have been in­vit­ed to the func­tion, which will al­so be at­tend­ed by the Chief Jus­tice and oth­er dig­ni­taries.

Kan­ga­loo suc­ceeds out­go­ing Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes.

For­mer Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo was nom­i­nat­ed as head of state by the Dr Kei­th Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion when the Elec­toral Col­lege - in­volv­ing mem­bers of the Up­per and Low­er Hous­es of Par­lia­ment - met on Jan­u­ary 20.

Kan­ga­loo was elect­ed with a to­tal of 48 votes (from Gov­ern­ment, In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors and the House Speak­er).

The Op­po­si­tion, which had stat­ed it didn’t sup­port an ac­tive politi­cian for Pres­i­dent, had in­stead nom­i­nat­ed Se­nior Coun­sel Is­rael Khan.

The UNC’s Sen­a­tors and MPs com­prised a to­tal of 25 votes. But in the re­sults, there were 22 votes for Khan with three spoiled bal­lots. No one on the Op­po­si­tion side has ac­cept­ed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the three spoiled bal­lots.

Gov­ern­ment mem­bers and In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors are all ex­pect­ed to at­tend Mon­day’s in­au­gu­ra­tion.

Yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar didn’t re­ply to emailed query on if she’ll at­tend the func­tion.

UNC chair­man MP Dave Tan­coo said, “There is no pol­i­cy by the par­ty to at­tend or not. The pol­i­cy is that the leader has left it to the dis­cre­tion of Mem­bers to at­tend if they wish to or not. I’ve made up my mind - I’m not at­tend­ing.”

No replies came from UNC deputy lead­ers Roodal Mooni­lal, David Lee or Jear­lean John; and Cu­mu­to MP Dr Rai Rag­bir.

But a num­ber of oth­er UNC MPs - Bar­ry Padarath, Dr Rishad Seecher­an, Rod­ney Charles and oth­ers - con­firmed non-at­ten­dance to the T&T Guardian. It was al­so con­firmed that UNC Sen­a­tors won’t at­tend ei­ther.

Padarath said, “I don’t sup­port an ac­tive politi­cian be­ing Pres­i­dent, pre­tend­ing to be im­par­tial. Hence, refuse to be part of that ob­scen­i­ty.”

Moru­ga MP Michelle Ben­jamin said wher­ev­er her leader was, she’d be there.

Tabaquite MP Ani­ta Haynes said she was un­able to at­tend, since she has a dis­tri­b­u­tion of SEA pack­ages that day, mark­ing Mon­day’s In­ter­na­tion­al Day of Hap­pi­ness.

How­ev­er, Ma­yaro MP Paray said he’d re­ceived an email from the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent (OTP) three weeks ago to in­di­cate if he’d at­tend.

“I re­spond­ed pos­i­tive­ly via email, as an in­vi­ta­tion was to fol­low. I emailed the OTP on Tues­day ask­ing about the in­vi­ta­tion and pro­ce­dure for Mon­day. But I have re­ceived no re­sponse as of to­day - Fri­day at 3.19 pm. But I’ll go if I get the in­vi­ta­tion,” Paray added.

Paray didn’t an­swer query if he’d feel com­fort­able at­tend­ing when UNC didn’t sup­port Kan­ga­loo for Pres­i­dent.

A full del­e­ga­tion from the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, in­clud­ing Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, will at­tend the in­au­gu­ra­tion.

But PDP leader As­sem­bly­man Wat­son Duke said, “No, I have oth­er en­gage­ments.”