Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

Patrick Man­ning's po­lit­i­cal ca­reer as Prime Min­is­ter is com­ing to an end re­gard­less of his tac­tics to with­hold the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion date, Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has said.

"Mr Man­ning has the coun­try in lim­bo, in paral­y­sis and none of it is go­ing to help him at the end of the day," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said. She was re­fer­ring to Man­ning's fail­ure to an­nounce the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion date about one week af­ter Par­lia­ment was dis­solved. Man­ning ad­vised Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards to dis­solve Par­lia­ment on April 8. Par­lia­ment's sud­den dis­so­lu­tion brought a pre­ma­ture end to Man­ning's gov­er­nance since he still had at least two years and sev­en months for his gov­ern­ment's term to end. Per­sad- Bisses­sar said: "He has at least 35 days to an­nounce the elec­tions and un­til Ju­ly 8 to hold it, ac­cord­ing to var­i­ous pro­vi­sions in Trinidad and To­ba­go's Con­sti­tu­tion.

"May 24 will be the ear­li­est date that Man­ning can host a gen­er­al elec­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go since the na­tion holds the poll on a Mon­day. "Our con­sti­tu­tion man­dates what must hap­pen in a sit­u­a­tion like this. He can on­ly with­hold it for a cer­tain amount of time and no fur­ther than that. "Every day has an end and his day is com­ing. His end is com­ing, po­lit­i­cal­ly," she added. Per­sad-Bisses­sar was speak­ing with mem­bers of the me­dia yes­ter­day morn­ing at the UNC's Rien­zi Com­plex head­quar­ters, Cou­va. She was in­ter­viewed be­fore the UNC's screen­ing com­mit­tee kicked off the first phase of its screen­ing for can­di­dates for the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion.