Malis­sa Lara

As the count­down to the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion con­tin­ues, in­ter­est­ing de­vel­op­ments are emerg­ing. Be­fore the sev­er­al par­ties for­malised an ac­cord on Wednes­day night in Fyz­abad, PM Patrick Man­ning came out, po­lit­i­cal guns blaz­ing, claim­ing that any coali­tion gov­ern­ment is doomed. Tak­ing a jab at Con­gress of the Peo­ple's (COP) Win­ston Dook­er­an, Man­ning de­scribed him as weak and ac­cused him of cav­ing in to the de­mands of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC). Each side took turns with pi­cong as the po­lit­i­cal games­man­ship be­gan to grow. Man­ning, on the po­lit­i­cal plat­form, said UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar lacked the po­lit­i­cal acu­men to gov­ern.

The Op­po­si­tion con­tin­ued to make promis­es, while the Gov­ern­ment tried to per­suade the elec­torate that the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is the on­ly way for­ward. The week end­ed with US po­lit­i­cal strate­gist Bernard Camp­bell be­ing de­port­ed from T&T, and the UNC cry­ing shame on Man­ning, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Mar­tin Joseph and the PNM for em­ploy­ing "des­per­ate mea­sures."

Sun­day April 18

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­firms the par­ty will con­test 24 seats. It was de­cid­ed that Per­sad-Bisses­sar would lead the par­ty and be­come Prime Min­is­ter, should the Op­po­si­tion be in­vit­ed to form the gov­ern­ment. The al­lo­ca­tion of seats was signed on Sat­ur­day night when op­po­si­tion forces met at the Kam-Po Restau­rant in Ch­agua­nas to reach an ac­cord. They came to an agree­ment af­ter 9 pm on Sat­ur­day. On Sat­ur­day night, at a PNM ral­ly in Cunu­pia, a fiery Patrick Man­ning said a coali­tion gov­ern­ment was a recipe for dis­as­ter. Man­ning said COP leader, Win­ston Dook­er­an was a weak leader, who caved in to the de­mands of Per­sad-Bisses­sar. On Sun­day night, Per­sad-Bisses­sar in­sist­ed a coali­tion gov­ern­ment would work.

Mon­day April 19

Er­rol McLeod, for­mer pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the Oil­fields' Work­ers Trade Union aligns him­self with the UNC. McLeod said he was pressed to re­turn to pol­i­tics by the state of gov­er­nance in the par­ty. McLeod's Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice was as­signed two seats in the al­liance. Hu­man Re­source Man­ag­er, Joanne Thomas, re­places PNM MP for St Ann's East, An­tho­ny Roberts. She was ap­point­ed in the face of protest by con­stituents who would have none oth­er than Roberts.

Tues­day April 20

To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple (TOP) se­lects Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin to rep­re­sent To­ba­go East and Dr Del­mon Bak­er was giv­en the To­ba­go West tick­et. Labour Min­is­ter Ren­nie Du­mas had ear­li­er with­drawn his To­ba­go East can­di­da­cy, while deny­ing any rift or dif­fer­ences be­tween him­self and the par­ty. Lead­ing mem­bers of the unit­ed op­po­si­tion be­gin ham­mer­ing out a joint man­i­festo. This was the first joint-elec­tion-strate­gies meet­ing that the five mem­ber coali­tion team held around one ta­ble. St Ann's East MP, Roberts, hands over the reins to can­di­date Joanne Thomas in the pres­ence of the ex­ec­u­tive.

Wednes­day April 21

The Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship doc­u­ment is signed at the UNC's pub­lic meet­ing at Char­lie King Junc­tion, Fyz­abad, paving the way for five par­ties to come up against the rul­ing gov­ern­ment in the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion. Makan­dal Daa­ga of the Na­tion­al Joint Ac­tion Com­mit­tee says hope has been re­alised. Yasin Abu Bakr names his son, Fuad, po­lit­i­cal leader of the New Na­tion­al Vi­sion, launched at the Croisee, San Juan. PM Man­ning re-it­er­ates that a coali­tion gov­ern­ment will not work while speak­ing at the PNM's pub­lic meet­ing in Tabaquite.

Thurs­day April 22

Deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the COP Prakash Ra­mad­har, gets the nod for the St Au­gus­tine seat. COP po­lit­i­cal leader Win­ston Dook­er­an gets the green light for the Tu­na­puna seat. Two more po­lit­i­cal par­ties join the elec­tion fray–The Na­tion­al De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Or­gan­i­sa­tion led by Enoch John con­test­ed the Port-of-Spain South and Ca­roni Cen­tral seats in 2001, and the Class Ac­tion Re­form Move­ment led by Ri­car­do Phillip will con­test for the first time. The PNM's Ari­ma con­stituen­cy makes peace and out­go­ing MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and Leza­ma-Lee Sing de­cide to work to­geth­er. Some Ari­ma con­stituents had pre­vi­ous­ly ob­ject­ed to any new can­di­date for the seat be­fore and af­ter Lee-Sing's se­lec­tion.

Fri­day April 22

US po­lit­i­cal strate­gist Bernard Camp­bell, who is part of the UNC cam­paign team, is de­port­ed from T&T. The UNC claimed the in­struc­tions came from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, but Mar­tin Joseph de­nies this. UNC's po­lit­i­cal ral­ly took place in Bar­rack­pore while the PNM rolled in­to Pa­lo Seco. Per­sad-Bisses­sar claims po­lit­i­cal vic­tim­i­sa­tion against Camp­bell, one of Oba­ma's ad­vis­ers. Man­ning con­tin­ued to con­demn coali­tions. TOP's Ash­worth Jack takes le­gal ac­tion against ra­dio per­son­al­i­ty Ri­car­do "Glad­i­a­tor" Welch for defama­tion of char­ac­ter.