Gail Alexan­der

For­mer am­bas­sador to the Unit­ed Na­tions Dr Mar­jorie Thor­pe, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Hamid Ghany, Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie and for­mer head of mis­sions and pub­lic ser­vice head Regi­nald Du­mas are among those sug­gest­ed by gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials for the post of Pres­i­dent, say PP of­fi­cials.

Nom­i­na­tions for the post are to be sub­mit­ted by next Tues­day for the Feb­ru­ary 15 meet­ing of the elec­toral col­lege to elect T&T's fifth Pres­i­dent. Speak­er Wade Mark on Wednes­day is­sued a no­tice on the con­ven­ing of a meet­ing of the elec­toral col­lege, at 2 pm on Feb­ru­ary 15.

The elec­toral col­lege, which will meet at the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber, Tow­er D, con­sists of the mem­bers of the Sen­ate and the mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, as­sem­bled to­geth­er. Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards' sec­ond term ends next month. Sources said a choice might be firmed up be­fore week­end.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar man­dat­ed mem­bers of her team to come up with sug­ges­tions three weeks ago.

There has been lob­by­ing for nom­i­nees by sev­er­al with­in the Cab­i­net, it is un­der­stood. The PM, how­ev­er, is said to be play­ing her cards close to her chest.

The lat­est names which have emerged in ad­di­tion to sev­er­al al­ready in the mix, in­clude re­tired High Court judges Am­ri­ka Ti­wary-Red­dy, Mustapha Ibrahim and Zain­ool Ho­sein and re­tired chief jus­tice Sat Shar­ma, sources said.

There has al­so been spec­u­la­tion about Speak­er Wade Mark, for­mer bpTT head Robert Ri­ley, Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Hamel-Smith, Karl Hud­son-Phillips QC and for­mer chair­man of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion Ken­neth Lal­la.

PM Pres­i­den­tial an­nounce­ment on Mon­day

The COP's Na­tion­al Coun­cil al­so has sug­gest­ed for­mer COP leader Win­ston Dook­er­an.

But yes­ter­day COP PRO Ken­ny Jagdeosingh said the par­ty's ex­ec­u­tive had no word on whether any ap­proach was made to Dook­er­an on the is­sue or whether he would ac­cept.

Jagdeosingh said Dook­er­an re­turned to T&T on Tues­day from Chile. When the T&T Guardian re­cent­ly asked Dook­er­an if he would ac­cept the COP's rec­om­men­da­tion, he said it was not ap­pro­pri­ate to dis­cuss the is­sue.

Sev­er­al low­er-lev­el gov­ern­ment sources al­so spec­u­lat­ed about Mar­tin Daly, SC, for the post.

Nom­i­na­tions will have to be sent to the elec­toral col­lege by next Tues­day.

Nom­i­na­tions must be sup­port­ed by 12 sig­na­tures.

PNM chair­man Franklin Khan said the PNM had not yet dis­cussed a nom­i­nee but stood by Op­po­si­tion leader Kei­th Row­ley's com­ments that there should be some con­sen­sus be­tween Gov­ern­ment and the Op­po­si­tion on the is­sue.

PP deputy leader Su­ruj Ram­bachan, com­ment­ing on that sug­ges­tion, said: "I think the Prime Min­is­ter in her wis­dom will cer­tain­ly sug­gest some­one who has the back­ing of the ma­jor­i­ty of the cit­i­zens of T&T and who will be a per­son who is re­spon­si­ble and fair-mind­ed to all cit­i­zens."

Asked why Gov­ern­ment had not yet re­vealed any names for cit­i­zens to con­tem­plate, Ram­bachan said: "every­thing will be re­vealed on Nom­i­na­tion Day, which is just ahead."Vot­ing, if there is more than one nom­i­nee, will be by se­cret bal­lot.

The Gov­ern­ment com­mands the ma­jor­i­ty of num­bers in the elec­toral col­lege–29 MPs and 16 sen­a­tors–while the PNM has 12 MPs and six sen­a­tors.PNM MP Patrick Man­ning, who is on 42 days' ex­tend­ed sick leave and due back in ear­ly March, will miss the elec­tion.