Gail Alexan­der

Con­gress of the Peo­ple po­lit­i­cal leader Prakash Ra­mad­har's first op­por­tu­ni­ty to act as Prime Min­is­ter yes­ter­day, met with con­grat­u­la­tions from for­mer COP leader Win­ston Dook­er­an and oth­er Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Ra­mad­har was greet­ed by Dook­er­an and oth­er MPs dur­ing yes­ter­day's House sit­ting. Hours be­fore the House pro­ceed­ings, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar had ap­point­ed Ra­mad­har to act-for one day-in her ab­sence as she left yes­ter­day morn­ing for a Cari­com Sum­mit in Venezuela. Lead­ers from 33 Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean na­tions are at­tend­ing the two-day con­fer­ence in Cara­cas. Per­sad-Bisses­sar will ad­dress lead­ers and en­gage in bi-lat­er­al meet­ings with coun­ter­parts.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar pro­mot­ed in­creased South-South co-op­er­a­tion and will al­so ex­plore uni­ti­sa­tion of gas re­sources be­tween T&T and Venezuela. Lead­ers will ex­am­ine the glob­al fi­nan­cial cri­sis, rec­om­mend mech­a­nisms to stim­u­late eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment and dis­cuss joint ef­forts to tack­le drug traf­fick­ing. Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­turns home this evening. Act­ing in her ab­sence, Ra­mad­har, 48, is the lat­est leader with­in the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship coali­tion to act as Prime Min­is­ter. Pre­vi­ous­ly, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had ap­point­ed UNC chair­man Jack Warn­er, for­mer COP leader Dook­er­an, Mo­tion for So­cial Jus­tice leader Er­rol McLeod and To­ba­go Or­gan­si­a­tion of the Peo­ple (TOP) MP Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin to act in her ab­sence.

McLeod is out of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Dook­er­an is sched­uled to trav­el to­day on a ten- day busi­ness trip, ac­cord­ing to his of­fice yes­ter­day. Ra­mad­har, who holds the po­si­tion of Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter, is COP MP for St Au­gus­tine. An at­tor­ney for 24 years, Ra­mad­har en­tered pol­i­tics in 2007 when he un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed the Ca­roni East seat for the COP in that year's gen­er­al elec­tion. In the PP's 2010 uni­ty arrange­ment, the UNC agreed to have Ra­mad­har con­test the St Au­gus­tine seat then held by Vas­ant Bharath.

Ra­mad­har was elect­ed COP leader in COP's Ju­ly elec­tion of a suc­ces­sor to Dook­er­an. Yes­ter­day in the House, Ra­mad­har, dressed in black suit with red tie, made his Par­lia­men­tary "de­but" as PM, just af­ter the House came to or­der at 1.30 pm. He oc­cu­pied Per­sad-Bisses­sar's seat, next to which sat Min­is­ter Warn­er.

Short­ly af­ter Dook­er­an ar­rived in the Par­lia­ment, he leaned over and con­grat­u­lat­ed Ra­mad­har. Ra­mad­har was al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed by Jus­tice Min­is­ter Her­bert Vol­ney dur­ing Vol­ney's con­tri­bu­tion to de­bate on a jus­tice bill.