Leader of the Op­po­si­tion Dr Kei­th Row­ley says the next Pres­i­dent should be elect­ed on con­sen­sus af­ter con­sul­ta­tions with the Gov­ern­ment.

Row­ley, in an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, said the Op­po­si­tion tried to have a meet­ing with the Gov­ern­ment to dis­cuss the idea of elect­ing a Pres­i­dent by con­sen­sus.

He said he had asked Op­po­si­tion Whip Mar­lene Mc Don­ald to arrange a meet­ing with the Prime Min­is­ter last week but when Mc Don­ald con­tact­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar she was ad­vised to speak with House Leader Dr Roodal Mooni­lal about the pos­si­ble meet­ing.

Row­ley said Mc Don­ald told him sub­se­quent­ly the Gov­ern­ment had no nom­i­na­tions for Pres­i­dent.

He said the Op­po­si­tion was not pre­pared to sup­port any­one from the Par­lia­ment as Pres­i­dent, even though the law per­mits it.

Ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of once again play­ing games on a mat­ter of na­tion­al im­por­tance, Row­ley said he ex­pect­ed the Gov­ern­ment to come at the last minute and "spring up" some­one who was not the best qual­i­fied na­tion­al for the post.

Mooni­lal said in re­sponse yes­ter­day the Gov­ern­ment had a nom­i­nee.

"We must have a nom­i­nee. To say we have no nom­i­nee is ridicu­lous," Mooni­lal told the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day.

"We are con­sid­er­ing sev­er­al very good can­di­dates but have not set­tled on a sin­gle per­son since our ap­proach is con­sen­sus-build­ing. All can­di­dates are very wor­thy," he added.

Mooni­lal said an an­nounce­ment would be made by Tues­day.

Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards' sec­ond five-year term ends next month.