Shal­iza Has­sanali

Sus­pend­ed vice pres­i­dent of FI­FA Jack Warn­er will even­tu­al­ly be cleared of bribery charges lev­elled against him by the in­ter­nal foot­ball gov­ern­ing body. With this al­le­ga­tion out of the way, lo­cal psy­chic Win­ston Ra­goo pre­dicts Warn­er will will­ing­ly step down from the post and stick to his job as a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, serv­ing the cit­i­zens of T&T, thou­sands of whom have been ral­ly­ing be­hind him since the con­tro­ver­sy erupt­ed with­in FI­FA. But this will not be the end of Warn­er's trou­bles, Ra­goo said, as he will be dogged by cor­rup­tion al­le­ga­tions in the com­ing months from throngs of peo­ple and "a bat­tery of FBI agents trail­ing his every move."

Ra­goo said FI­FA will work close­ly with FBI agents in an at­tempt to bring Warn­er to his knees. "They will try to go all out to bring Warn­er down." Be­fore the year's end, Ra­goo said, Warn­er will face an up­hill bat­tle with new al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion sur­fac­ing. "Warn­er's mis­ery has just be­gun. Peo­ple will be com­ing for­ward with in­for­ma­tion in an at­tempt to nail him." Mean­while, Ra­goo said Warn­er's per­for­mance in the last year has cre­at­ed a lot of en­e­mies in and out of the Gov­ern­ment. With sup­port­ers ral­ly­ing be­hind Warn­er, Ra­goo said, this can lead to the Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter be­com­ing more pop­u­lar than Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Al­so, the re­la­tion­ship be­tween Warn­er and Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Prakash Ra­mad­har will be­come strained fol­low­ing re­cent state­ments made against Warn­er and by Warn­er against Ra­mad­har. He al­so pre­dict­ed a col­lapse of the PP's sup­port base if Warn­er walks.

In oth­er pre­dic­tions, Ra­goo said:

IN­FIGHT­ING IN COP AF­TER PAR­TY ELEC­TION

• Out­go­ing leader of the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP), Win­ston Dook­er­an will bow out of the Gov­ern­ment be­fore the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion.

• In­fight­ing in the par­ty.

• Se­nior COP mem­bers will walk out of the par­ty in dis­gust af­ter the par­ty's in­ter­nal elec­tion.

• Among those who will se­vere ties with the par­ty is vice chair­man Ver­non De Li­ma.

• The COP will again merge with the UNC to be­come one par­ty to fight the PNM in the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion.

As COP's Ju­ly 3 elec­tion draws clos­er, Ra­goo is pre­dict­ing some tur­bu­lent times ahead. Ra­goo spoke about the tongue lash­ing Warn­er un­leashed on Ra­mad­har, which he said could lead to a sway­ing of votes for the COP can­di­date in the par­ty's up­com­ing elec­tion. "Warn­er's sup­port is strong in the Gov­ern­ment and by him say­ing he is dis­ap­point­ed in Ra­mad­har could af­fect him as a can­di­date at the polls. "If Warn­er did not hold Ra­mad­har in high es­teem he would not have said what he did."

The rift in the COP will con­tin­ue to widen, he added. On Dook­er­an, Ra­goo said that had he stayed as leader of the par­ty, "it cer­tain­ly would not have made the COP any stronger." As for Dook­er­an's fu­ture, Ra­goo said: "I think he would be a silent part­ner in COP and play an im­por­tant role in ad­vis­ing the Gov­ern­ment on the econ­o­my and fi­nan­cial bud­gets. "Af­ter this elec­tion, he will bow out of pol­i­tics. I am not see­ing Dook­er­an go­ing in­to an­oth­er elec­tion."

Af­ter the COP's in­ter­nal elec­tion, Ra­goo said, the par­ty will merge with the UNC to fight the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment. "I am not see­ing the COP go­ing on as a long term par­ty in the next build up of the elec­tion be­cause of the in­ter­nal rum­blings. This whole elec­tion thing will not be good for the COP. The mo­men­tum they were build­ing is los­ing steam. If the COP stands alone they will not be strong."

Pre­dic­tions in­clude

MAN­NING TO MAKE A COME­BACK

• Plot by PNM mem­bers to un­der­mine Row­ley.

• Plans are afoot for for­mer prime min­is­ter, Patrick Man­ning to take over the PNM.

• Man­ning will come back to lead the PNM.

• PNM sup­port grow­ing.

The Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship

• The PP has a year to get its act to­geth­er or lose the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Ra­goo's suc­cess­ful pre­dic­tions

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will be­come T&T's first fe­male Prime Min­is­ter.

Calder Hart will pack up and leave the coun­try.

To­ba­go Or­gain­sa­tion of the Peo­ple (TOP) will cap­ture two seats in the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion.

PP Gov­ern­ment will win PNM strong­hold ar­eas Ari­ma, D'Abadie/O'Meara and To­co/ San­gre Grande in the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Plot to get Patrick Man­ning out as PNM leader.

Win­ston Dook­er­an will bow out of COP lead­er­ship race.