The res­ur­rec­tion of the UNC in last week’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion is a tes­ta­ment to the suc­cess­ful en­gage­ment of the ground base by the par­ty through its NA­TEX elec­tions last June. This move not on­ly rein­vig­o­rat­ed the par­ty’s base but al­so helped over­come an in­sur­gency in­side the par­ty de­signed to top­ple the lead­er­ship.

New­ly sworn-in Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo has con­firmed that no prop­er­ty tax will be in­tro­duced and says any­one who paid the fees will be re­fund­ed.

As the first beats of so­ca thun­dered through the ear­ly morn­ing dark, Point Fortin came alive with colour, chaos and cul­ture.

Re­in­forc­ing the promise she made just two days ear­li­er, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day again as­sured the na­tion that with­in six months, the coun­try will wit­ness a marked de­cline in crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty. She main­tained that the tar­get is both re­al­is­tic and achiev­able, giv­en the re­sources her ad­min­is­tra­tion has at its dis­pos­al.

For­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young has dis­missed claims made by for­mer CN­MG CEO Ken Ali that the pre­vi­ous Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment ad­min­is­tra­tion en­gaged in se­cret and pos­si­bly im­prop­er bor­row­ing in the lead-up to the last Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

The new UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion will pro­ceed with a 35-mem­ber Gov­ern­ment, which in­cludes Cab­i­net mem­bers, min­is­ters as­sist­ing sub­stan­tive Cab­i­net mem­bers, and par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries.

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Prof Hamid Ghany says the de­ci­sion to split the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in­to two dis­tinct port­fo­lios—Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and De­fence—is con­sis­tent with Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s long-stand­ing po­si­tion while in op­po­si­tion.

Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Michael Dowlath says chief among his pri­or­i­ties in of­fice would be to in­tro­duce a more “child-cen­tred” learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence in the pub­lic school sys­tem while mak­ing full use of tech­no­log­i­cal tools to en­hance train­ing.

“It would be a priv­i­lege to work with these guys!” This was act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ju­nior Ben­jamin’s re­sponse to yes­ter­day’s swear­ing-in of Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der and Wayne Sturge as Min­is­ter of De­fence at Pres­i­dent’s House.

Two of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s lead­ing busi­ness or­gan­i­sa­tions have wel­comed the ap­point­ment of the new Cab­i­net, while call­ing for ur­gent col­lab­o­ra­tion on crit­i­cal ar­eas of eco­nom­ic re­form and en­er­gy pol­i­cy.

On the heels of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s an­nounce­ment last night that the Drag­on gas field is dead and the Gov­ern­ment will be pur­su­ing oth­er op­tions, econ­o­mist and en­er­gy strat­e­gy con­sul­tant Gre­go­ry McGuire says this must be a pri­or­i­ty as it is “a dif­fi­cult time for Trinidad and To­ba­go” in the en­er­gy sec­tor.

The To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) has reaf­firmed it will not join Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Cab­i­net fol­low­ing the swear­ing-in of min­is­ters and par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries yes­ter­day.