Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­firmed yes­ter­day the Ch­agua­nas West by-elec­tion could be held dur­ing the month of Ra­madan which runs from Ju­ly 9 to Au­gust 9.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar was re­spond­ing to ques­tions from re­porters af­ter a short vis­it to the Tran­quil­li­ty Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School, Port-of-Spain, where she wished good luck to the 53 pupils writ­ing to­day's Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am and pre­sent­ed them with pen­cils, erasers, sharp­en­er and rulers. The gifts were con­tained in a yel­low plas­tic kit.For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Jack Warn­er said on so­cial me­dia on Tues­day the Ch­agua­nas West by-elec­tion should not be held dur­ing Ra­madan.

Asked to re­spond that re­quest yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: "We have had elec­tions be­fore in that time. There is no way...I did not trig­ger this process." She said it was trig­gered by Warn­er's res­ig­na­tion."Giv­en the Con­sti­tu­tion and the time­frame, it has been trig­gered in the month of Ra­madan. I can­not go out­side the Con­sti­tu­tion to hold it af­ter. I have to work with­in the hand that is dealt to me."

She said the 90-day pe­ri­od for the hold­ing of the by-elec­tion ends on Au­gust 10. Speak­er Wade Mark is ex­pect­ed to de­clare the seat held by Warn­er va­cant to­mor­row. The Con­sti­tu­tion pro­vides for the by-elec­tion to be held in no more than 90 days from May 10.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was ad­vised that the Eid-ul-Fitr hol­i­day is ex­pect­ed on ei­ther Au­gust 9 or 10. "So there is no way I can change that process, which was trig­gered not by my do­ing and I would have to fol­low the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she would seek a meet­ing "with our Mus­lim broth­ers and sis­ters of that com­mu­ni­ty to see how best we can do it."She said: "It will not be the first time that the elec­tion is be­ing held in this time of the year."Pres­i­dent of the An­ju­man Sunat ul Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion Ya­coob Ali could not be reached for com­ment yes­ter­day.

And the PM al­so con­firmed that the UNC con­sti­tu­tion pro­vid­ed for any mem­ber who con­test­ed an elec­tion with­out the ap­proval of the par­ty to be ex­pelled. She was re­spond­ing to ques­tions on the pos­si­ble con­se­quences for Warn­er if he were to con­test the Ch­agua­nas West by-elec­tion as an In­de­pen­dent can­di­date.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so re­spond­ed to ques­tions on al­leged fights be­tween Warn­er and Works and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan, say­ing she did not agree that there was more in-fight­ing in the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress. She said at elec­tion time mem­bers got more ex­cit­ed.She said it was nor­mal for there to be dif­fer­ent views among par­ty mem­bers from time-to-time and she didn't "think it was as bad as was be­ing re­port­ed."

Asked if Trade, In­dus­try and In­vest­ments Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath was be­ing favoured to con­test the seat for the UNC, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: "No can­di­date has been de­cid­ed. No can­di­date has been ap­proached by my good self. I have not spo­ken to any per­son to be or not to be a can­di­date."

And the PM al­so said leg­is­la­tion to amend the Con­sti­tu­tion to pro­vide for en­hanced in­ter­nal self-gov­ern­ment for To­ba­go, which was laid in Par­lia­ment short­ly be­fore the Jan­u­ary 21 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tion, is ex­pect­ed to lapse when Par­lia­ment is pro­rogued next month.The bill was nev­er de­bat­ed as the Op­po­si­tion said it would not sup­port it. The Gov­ern­ment then said it would re­fer the mat­ter to a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee of the Par­lia­ment but the Op­po­si­tion re­fused to take part in that process.

The To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple, which is a mem­ber of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment, lost the elec­tion and the mea­sure was nev­er brought back to the Par­lia­ment.