Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is expected to break his silence on the criminal charges against former Minister Marlene McDonald at two forums on Thursday.
PNM sources said Rowley is expected to attend Thursday's post-Cabinet media conference.
He will also be speaking at a PNM meeting later that day at City Hall, Port-of-Spain which is in McDonald’s Port-of-Spain South constituency.
McDonald is on seven alleged corruption charges.
Four others, including her companion, Micheal Carew, are on a total of 49 related charges.
Rowley did not take media questions on the matter at Wednesday’s energy sector programme launch at Hyatt Regency hotel. Nor did he do so at Wednesday’s swearing-in function of new Public Utilities Parliamentary Secretary Adrian Leonce at President’s House.
And when Rowley arrived at Balisier House headquarters for last night’s screening exercise, he only waved at media cameras.
The screening was done by the PNM for the nine electoral areas in the Diego Martin corporation plus outstanding areas in Port-of-Spain, Sangre Grande and Tunapuna/Piarco Corporations.
The screening team members PNM chairman Colm Imbert and PNM deputy leader Rohan Sinanan both declined to comment on McDonald.
A bright spot prior to screening was when newly-appointed Parliamentary Secretary Adrian Leonce arrived at Balisier House to applause and hugs from PNMites.
PNM sources said Rowley’s statements are also expected to include Government’s plan to deal with gangs getting state contracts.
The issue was exposed via a Guardian Media investigative report last month which provided information that alleged gang members were getting state contracts from Port-of-Spain and Diego Martin corporations over 2015-2017.
Moruga/Tableland MP Lovell Francis also complained publicly that criminal gangs were trying to extort money from contractors repairing roads in his constituency and had also threatened his life.
Police Commissioner Gary Griffith had complained that revenue from the contracts was being used by gangs to buy guns and drugs and the situation had fuelled turf wars for state contracts and led to a spike in the murder rate.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi subsequently said he was meeting with the Police Commissioner on the issue. After that, he said Government was formulating a plan to deal with the matter and he had expected it would have been discussed at the next Cabinet meeting.
That was two weeks ago. There was no Cabinet meeting the week after he said that. However, Cabinet meets on Thursday.