Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

As 2023 ticks in­to his­to­ry, it will be re­mem­bered as sear­ing El Ni­no heat, man­i­fest­ing in height­ened po­lit­i­cal spar­ring and chal­lenges for the Dr Kei­th Row­ley-led Gov­ern­ment and the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Op­po­si­tion - with suc­cess and set­back for each in cer­tain ar­eas.

At mid-term, this third year of the cur­rent five-year term is al­so the eighth year since the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion first oc­cu­pied those re­spec­tive po­si­tions af­ter the 2015 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley launched 2023 com­mit­ting to over­haul/re­dou­ble ef­forts to fight crime and be­gin pub­lic con­ver­sa­tions, ac­knowl­edg­ing the in­ci­dents of 2022 war­rant­ed “a sec­ond look at the ap­proach.” Cit­ing eco­nom­ic resur­gence, he main­tained much suc­cess was at­tained in a dif­fi­cult pe­ri­od and there was a lot of good to look for­ward to in 2023 and be­yond. The year de­mand­ed - and pro­duced cer­tain re­sults on that.

For the Gov­ern­ment’s part, it be­gan in Jan­u­ary, with bold steps to­wards the Drag­on gas field arrange­ment with Venezuela - and de­spite the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s var­i­ous oth­er 2023 chal­lenges - end­ed pos­i­tive­ly with the li­cenc­ing for the deal by De­cem­ber 22.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Per­sad-Bisses­sar launched 2023 lob­by­ing peo­ple to de­mand pos­i­tive change in T&T, adding that with a new year came po­ten­tial for new pos­si­bil­i­ties. And the year was to prove that for the Op­po­si­tion.

In full post-pan­dem­ic re­cov­ery mode, the po­lit­i­cal “drag­ons” of each side at­tempt­ed to over­come the tra­di­tion­al po­lit­i­cal mid-term trough and repiv­ot their par­ties to be­gin the lead-in pe­ri­od to­wards gen­er­al elec­tions.

At their eighth an­niver­sary on Au­gust 10, Row­ley, claim­ing suc­cess­es, ad­mit­ted to cer­tain fail­ures - not be­ing able to put mon­ey in pub­lic ser­vants’ hands ear­li­er and los­ing touch with To­bag­o­ni­ans and the 2021 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tion out­come.

Four days lat­er, where an­oth­er elec­tion - Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment - was the key po­lit­i­cal de­vel­op­ment of 2023, that LG Au­gust 14 poll would prove how much his Gov­ern­ment main­tained touch with Trinidad’s pub­lic. Or not.

T&T’s big­ger (1,09,935) elec­torate showed how it felt about po­lit­i­cal of­fer­ings in turn, of­fer­ing a 30.34 per cent turnout and a 7-7 re­sult; “feel­ings” ap­par­ent­ly un­changed since the same 2019 LG elec­tion out­come. A tie al­so sig­nalled cer­tain loss, as the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) “hold­ing on” to sev­en cor­po­ra­tions, fell in some dis­tricts it pre­vi­ous­ly held.

It was a year of new faces on the po­lit­i­cal land­scape; and part­ner­ing by Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion re­spec­tive­ly with for­eign and lo­cal play­ers.

Row­ley, on fre­quent over­seas mis­sions, billed him­self as T&T’s num­ber one sales­man seek­ing to ex­pand lo­cal and re­gion­al in­ter­ests. This, ap­par­ent­ly with more suc­cess ex­ter­nal­ly - in­clud­ing with the Drag­on gas deal - than lo­cal­ly with LG elec­tions, de­spite in­jec­tions to the PNM of ex-UNC blood.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, pro­fess­ing to love every­one, sought UNC’s ex­pan­sion. Jack Warn­er re­sumed UNC po­lit­i­cal life, re­ceiv­ing rock star re­cep­tion on elec­tion walk­a­bouts.

Gary Grif­fith, be­gin­ning 2023 as for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er, end­ed as leader of his own Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance par­ty, of­fi­cial UNC as­so­ciate and PNM’s poster boy for veiled state­ments, in­nu­en­do and al­le­ga­tion. Grif­fith had replies (and law­suits) ready, wait­ing (and win­ning) re­gard­ing all.

Non-part­ner­ing be­tween the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion con­tin­ued on key is­sues, in­clud­ing an­ti-crime talks and Par­lia­ment de­bates on is­sues and pro­posed bills.

It’s con­firmed 12 bills were passed in 2023. Sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty was “King”. There were di­vi­sions on the Pro­cure­ment amend­ment and Val­i­da­tion and Val­u­a­tion of Land amend­ment, which UNC didn’t sup­port.

The good, the bad, the praised

Po­lit­i­cal bat­tles were fought as equal­ly in the courts as in Par­lia­ment, To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, via Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion re­quests, In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion com­plaints and sim­i­lar av­enues - and protests.

T&T got its sec­ond fe­male Pres­i­dent - Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo. PNM mourned war­riors de­ceased, in­clud­ing Jar­rette Nar­ine, Ter­ry Ron­don and Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald. The UNC: Bri­an Stone and sev­er­al ac­tivists.

Com­ment arose on Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s seem­ing frailty, she rub­bished talk of ma­jor ill­ness - and saw her par­ty win the LG elec­tion’s pop­u­lar vote.

Row­ley (whose par­ty didn’t) would feel “faint” in Feb­ru­ary, get COVID a fourth time - and start tak­ing mi­ni va­ca­tions.

The biggest is­sues as­sum­ing po­lit­i­cal foot­ball sta­tus: de­spite their per­son­al se­cu­ri­ty, and SUV - dis­tance from the ground, crime was as much the key is­sue for both PNM Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion UNC, as it’s been for the em­bat­tled pub­lic amid a mur­der rate head­ing to the 2022 lev­el of 602.

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds was Pub­lic En­e­my num­ber one.

(Along with T&T’s “perps” dy­ing, dead and soon to be as things go in The Life).

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les, in a year of record heat, wa­ter short­ages and TSTT hack­ing, was sec­ond.

Earn­ing Row­ley’s praise: Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi (as PNM’s helms­man for LG elec­tion), En­er­gy Min­is­ter/Min­is­ter in the OPM Stu­art Young (for the Drag­on deal ac­com­plish­ment), For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne (for Cari­com work).

Lit­i­ga­tion seek­ers in­clude Row­ley, Fi­nance’s Colm Im­bert, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, UNC’s Roodal Mooni­lal.

And none of those sto­ries end at mid­night to­mor­row. Both­er less with 2023 pass­ing than what it por­tends for 2024 pos­si­bil­i­ties - and 2025 prob­a­bil­i­ties.

2023 HIGH­LIGHTS

JAN­U­ARY: En­ter the Drag­on courtship; new Pres­i­dent

PM’s en­er­gy con­fer­ence ad­dress “Nav­i­gat­ing a Com­plex En­er­gy Fu­ture” hint­ed at chal­lenges and ac­tions.

His sub­se­quent rev­e­la­tion of the US waiv­er of sanc­tions re­mov­ing re­stric­tions on T&T’s Drag­on gas field de­vel­op­ment with Venezuela was hailed as “a gi­ant step for­ward.” The an­nounce­ment set the stage for one of Gov­ern­ment’s biggest 2023 projects; not on­ly on po­ten­tial ben­e­fits, but de­bate and in­ter­na­tion­al is­sues along the way.

The Elec­toral Col­lege vot­ed on ex-Sen­ate pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo as T&T’s sev­enth Pres­i­dent – and sec­ond fe­male Pres­i­dent - re­plac­ing Paula-Mae Weekes. De­spite UNC pro­tes­tors out­side Par­lia­ment de­clar­ing “No to Kan­ga­roo,” Kan­ga­loo re­ceived unan­i­mous Gov­ern­ment and In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors’ sup­port. But out of the to­tal 25 Op­po­si­tion votes for UNC nom­i­nee Is­rael Khan,(SC, there were three spoiled bal­lots. Cul­prits were un­con­firmed.

Sen­ate Vice Pres­i­dent Nigel de Fre­itas re­places Kan­ga­loo as Sen­ate Pres­i­dent. First of the Gov­ern­ment’s new faces - Cen­tral busi­ness­man Rishi Sookhai be­came PNM Sen­a­tor.

UNC’s Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­mands “ax­ing” of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour and for­mer AG Faris Al-Rawi, fol­low­ing the State’s fail­ure to present de­fence against the ma­li­cious pros­e­cu­tion claim of nine men award­ed $20 mil­lion af­ter be­ing ac­quit­ted of the Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man mur­der - first of the year’s po­lit­i­cal-le­gal is­sues.

Wth 22 dead in 14 days of 2023, UNC be­gins calls for the re­moval of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds ... and con­tin­ues all year.

FEB­RU­ARY: “Hug­ging up” - new CoP, Jack

Gov­ern­ment/Op­po­si­tion sup­port nom­i­na­tion of new Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher - and re­turn to bick­er­ing for the rest of the year, in­clud­ing UNC slam­ming At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour af­ter his dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion from the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port case in Mi­a­mi.

Af­ter 10 years of not speak­ing, Jack Warn­er and UNC leader Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­unite at a Car­ni­val fete, and they roll from there.

De­part­ed, ex-PNM MP Jar­rette Nar­ine’s dis­tinc­tive voice is no more,

PM talks the good talk at Guyana’s in­ter­na­tion­al en­er­gy con­fer­ences - but head­ing to the Ba­hamas for Cari­com’s sum­mit - first of the new for­mat to have two con­fer­ences an­nu­al­ly - Row­ley and St Vin­cent Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves are blanked at Guyana’s Amer­i­can Air­lines VIP lounge. Guyana’s gov­ern­ment blasts AA, apolo­gies ar­rive.

PM feels faint at night­time steel­pan judg­ing com­pe­ti­tion. That month, he al­so got COVID a fourth time.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar writes Flori­da Bar As­so­ci­a­tion on At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour and Se­qour Law, in the Pi­ar­co case in Mi­a­mi; calls out Gov­ern­ment on the US Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons 2022 Re­port ref­er­ence to “se­nior Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials” PM claims that’s on Op­po­si­tion bench. Ex-UNC min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj adds back-up al­le­ga­tions about UNC of­fi­cials. The TTPS probes the whole thing.

MARCH: Pi­ar­co win, Gary win

Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions drops Pi­ar­co 3 case against for­mer PM Bas­deo Pan­day, wife Oma, Car­los John and Ish Gal­barans­ingh launch­ing one of the year’s biggest tiffs - af­ter DPP speaks of lack of staff and ac­com­mo­da­tion. The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, PM and Chief Jus­tice slam back and the Op­po­si­tion de­fends DPP. Ar­gu­ments in­clude on the Park Street build­ing leased for the DPP, un­used due to se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns - and $55 mil­lion worth of angst for Gov­ern­ment

Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo is sworn in as Pres­i­dent.

Op­po­si­tion/Gov­ern­ment blame each oth­er for “un­ruly” be­hav­iour at Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion con­sul­ta­tion on TTEC rate hike, where protests in­clud­ed a repli­ca cof­fin la­belled “RIP RIC.”

Cab­i­net ap­point­ed a Nizam Mo­hammed team to li­aise with fam­i­lies on the 100-plus women and chil­dren - sur­vivors of T&T ISIS fight­ers - in Mid­dle East refugee camps. Per­sad-Bisses­sar calls for the group to be repa­tri­at­ed.

PNM be­gins pub­lic meet­ings in Barataria, in a year (ini­tial­ly) pro­ject­ed to have Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment polls by year-end.

Af­ter 19 years, the al­leged cor­rup­tion Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port civ­il case in Mi­a­mi con­cludes with a $700m award for the T&T Gov­ern­ment, pro­ject­ed to be­come al­most $1 bil­lion ahead.

Among cas­es ex-CoP Gary Grif­fith wins this year -block­ing the Stan­ley John Firearms Users Li­cence probe re­port from be­ing re­leased by Row­ley in Par­lia­ment. UNC calls Gov­ern­ment out on the cost of liv­ing; warns of T&TEC rate in­crease com­ing, school sup­port ser­vices and the dropout rate.

APRIL: Beat­ing crime. And Hinds

Cari­com lead­ers’ re­gion­al crime sym­po­sium in T&T, trade sto­ries on the is­sue. UNC jefe Per­sad-Bisses­sar at­tends.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar (un­suc­cess­ful­ly) calls on Gov­ern­ment for a meet­ing on T&T”s surg­ing crime. Par­lia­ment de­bates UNC no-con­fi­dence mo­tion against Hinds.

PNM sen­a­tor Rishi Sookhai ap­point­ed Min­is­ter in Works.

Op­po­si­tion pounds TTPS and Hinds af­ter Jus­tice Devin­dra Ram­per­sad’s ver­dict that firearms deal­er Brent Thomas was il­le­gal­ly ab­duct­ed from Bar­ba­dos in 2022 by T&T of­fi­cers work­ing with Bar­ba­dos po­lice.

MAY: Govt los­es - LG Polls on

PM week­ends in Bar­ba­dos to “reac­quaint him­self with some of the best golf cours­es in the world,” not the Brent Thomas is­sue. Bar­ba­dos’ AG is­sues a state­ment on that, as does T&T’s AG. Probes mount­ed on both sides. UNC, sus­pi­cious of PM’s Bar­ba­dos trip, calls for an­swers on Thomas from Bar­ba­dos, Cari­com and T&T.

Per­sad Bisses­sar is­sues a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter against PM on al­leged defam­a­to­ry state­ments against her. UNC Sen­a­tors track­ing al­leged Spe­cial Branch re­port on min­is­ter.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert’s mid-year-re­view news topped by Privy Coun­cil rul­ing on UNC ac­tivist Ravi Bal­go­b­in Ma­haraj’s ap­pli­ca­tion that Gov­ern­ment was wrong to post­pone Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion in 2022 and ex­tend the life of the mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions’ of­fi­cials for one year.

Rul­ing -in which UNC ex­ults- clears the way for LG polls by Au­gust, mak­ing every de­bate and item be­tween Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion a cam­paign is­sue.

UNC re­opens nom­i­na­tions, starts screen­ing the 100-plus can­di­dates it had since 2022 for LG polls. Vanes­sa Kussie - wife of de­ceased Paria Fu­el pipeline div­ing in­ci­dent vic­tim Rishi Nages­sar among the nom­i­nees. Car­ni­val-type at­mos­phere as nom­i­nees ar­rive for screen­ing.

Gary Grif­fith launch­es Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance.

PNM opens LG nom­i­na­tions, PM meets busi­ness lead­ers at a fundrais­er; Siparia and Diego Mar­tin be­come bor­oughs.

UNC-ex War­renville coun­cil­lor Samuel Sankar re­signed from UNC and lat­er at­tend­ed a PNM Ari­ma meet­ing.

More PNM new blood from UNC - ex-Ari­ma Cen­tral coun­cil­lor, Sand Fer­nan­do coun­cil­lor Mar­cus Gird­harie, youth arm of­fi­cer Kaveesh Siew­di­al all go Bal­isi­er Red.

UNC calls out the Gov­ern­ment on chil­dren’s homes, con­struc­tion of Bal­isi­er House, VAT re­fund $$ owed, and failed promise to re­duce fu­el prices as oil prices drop.

PM gets Howard Uni­ver­si­ty de­gree - and ku­dos from US Pres­i­dent Joe Biden.

JUNE: New bud­dies for UNC, PNM

PNM be­gins LG screen­ing, new faces as some vet­er­ans ex­it.

PM open­ly in­vites ex-UNC mem­bers/sup­port­ers.

Tarhaqua Obi­ka, a chief econ­o­mist at the Op­po­si­tion Leader’s of­fice who’d spo­ken against Gov­ern­ment’s eco­nom­ic poli­cies at a UNC April 16 brief­ing, joins PNM, lat­er gets Trade Min­istry post.

UNC, Gary Grif­fith’s NTA and Garvin Nicholas’ MND have LG ac­com­mo­da­tion.

UNC’s cam­paign fo­cus - Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s blows for Gov­ern­ment on T&T”s crime. Calls for in­ter­na­tion­al elec­tion ob­servers.

PNM launch­es cam­paign. Row­ley blanks call for in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers. Cam­paign fo­cus­es on LG re­form (LGR), not crime. Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi is PNM’s poster boy for LGR.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar leads UNC walk­out of Par­lia­ment over in­ter­rup­tion dur­ing de­bate on bill to val­i­date coun­cil­lors’ ac­tions be­tween De­cem­ber 2022 and May 18.

PM vows res­ig­na­tion if proven he mis­led Par­lia­ment re­gard­ing the ap­point­ment of a Chief Ad­min­is­tra­tor to the To­ba­go House Of As­sem­bly - among as­sort­ed tus­sles in 2023 with the Far­ley Au­gus­tine THA.

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion nom­i­na­tions num­ber 373 for the 141 seats in the 14 cor­po­ra­tions, ten par­ties and six In­de­pen­dents con­test.

PNM, the on­ly par­ty con­test­ing all 141 seats, UNC/NTA ac­co­mo­da­tion con­tests 110 and 31 re­spec­tive­ly. Al­so con­test­ing - PEP with Re­unit­ed Farm­ers Al­liance, PDP, MSJ, the Na­tion­al Par­ty, Trinidad Hu­man­i­ty Cam­paign and Uni­ty of the Peo­ple.

UNC slams Gov­ern­ment on the death of Massy work­er at Ni­quan; PM’s view of prop­er­ty tax $$ as “din­ner mint cost lev­el,” deems Cari­com crime sym­po­sium waste of $3.4M spent; tell unions “Re­trench Row­ley”

Among meet­ings with US Con­gress rep­re­sen­ta­tives and oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners, T&T/Cari­com lead­ers bond with US Vice Pres­i­dent Ka­mala Har­ris in the Ba­hamas on en­er­gy and se­cu­ri­ty is­sues.

JU­LY: Cam­paign spar­ing above 33°C

Elec­tion heat ris­es with the tem­per­a­ture, UNC de­nounces de­fec­tor “jumpers” to PNM. Pro­duces stal­warts Joseph Toney, the UNC/NTA/Warn­er plat­form.

PM calls in top TTPS brass amid con­tin­ued crime surge.

PNM on the cam­paign trail - in­clud­ing Con­ver­sa­tions with PM for­mat. Apolo­gies come for the state of roads. PNM warns vot­ers against UNC. And Vice Ver­sa. UNC takes is­sue with PM’s state­ment on crime cul­prits.

T&T host­ed, Cari­com toast­ed at its 50th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions.

Par­lia­ment sum­moned out of re­cess and Gov­ern­ment/Op­po­si­tion ar­gue over le­gal or­ders ex­empt­ing from pro­cure­ment laws cer­tain func­tions in­volv­ing in­ter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors. It un­veils the truth of de­lays un­der the law’s lengthy re­quired process­es - from toi­let pa­per to con­tract af­fect­ed.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar says po­lice/as­so­ci­at­ed agen­cies must act against cor­rupt po­lice of­fi­cers/en­ti­ties in­tim­i­dat­ing peo­ple ob­ject­ing to noise pol­luters; UNC calls for an­swers on the fi­nanc­ing of PNM’s Bal­isi­er House con­struc­tion, which Row­ley de­fends. UNC pro­motes Stand Your Ground law to send a mes­sage to cul­prits.

Jus­tice Stan­ley John sub­mits re­port on the miss­ing/resur­faced file at AG’s Of­fice.

THA ‘s Au­gus­tine ac­cus­es PM, CoP of al­leged “con­spir­a­cy” fol­low­ing “whistle­blow­er” al­le­ga­tions. PM im­me­di­ate­ly dis­tances him­self from that; lat­er seeks le­gal ac­tion.

UNC ac­tivist Bri­an Stone dies. In March, he’d planned go­ing to Ukraine to fight Rus­sia.

Fired Sports Min­is­ter Dar­ryl Smith among per­sons ap­point­ed as T&T Com­mer­cial of­fi­cers. Op­po­si­tion lat­er seeks de­tails in Sen­ate

AU­GUST: Why 7/7 means “Los­er”

Ghana and T&T Com­mon­wealth Youth Games vis­i­tors in T&T amid LG cam­paign­ing. Per­sad-Bisses­sar takes to the “ground” with “Light Em Up” an­ti-crime slo­gan and Stand Your Ground laws.

Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour gets com­plaints not on­ly about her but al­so on some of Row­ley’s cam­paign trail re­marks.

PM, UNC spar over In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion clear­ing him on town­house mat­ter. PM su­ing Wade Mark for slan­der.

Par­ties con­clude cam­paign - PNM in Tu­na­puna, UNC, San Fer­nan­do. NTA mo­tor­cade be­tween.

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment polls end in 7-7 tie for the 14 cor­po­ra­tions, with PNM and UNC “stand­ing” the same “ground” lev­el they’d ob­tained in 2019 LG polls. Es­ti­mat­ed 30 per cent vot­er turnout. PNM los­es some San Fer­nan­do West ar­eas and San­gre Grande. UNC wins the pop­u­lar vote. UNC seeks re­count in sev­er­al ar­eas which re­mained with PNM, in­clud­ing Ari­ma North­east.

Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion or­ders new elec­tions in Lengua In­di­an Walk af­ter re­counts re­sult­ed in ties. UNC chal­lenges this in court.

On elec­tion night, PM ex­ults over PNM’s win­nings de­spite naysay­ers. Alerts on gen­er­al elec­tion next, meets all can­di­dates - and de­parts for Bar­ba­dos va­ca­tion.

New PNM, UNC, ap­pointees helm­ing cor­po­ra­tions.

UNC ‘s Good­wood can­di­date, Mar­sha Walk­er, re­signs as UNC Diego co-or­di­na­tor over women’s rights is­sue.

Af­ter UNC claims of a Min­is­ter sub­mit­ting a weapon to the TTPS, En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young ad­mits he do­nat­ed a weapon to the TTPS and abid­ed by aws. Lat­er walks off on me­dia query for de­tails.

UNC Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans call out Gov­ern­ment on schools/re­sources.

THA’s Au­gus­tine launch­es To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP), de­clares “war” with cer­tain State arms.

SEP­TEM­BER: Pres­i­den­tial call out on crime

Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo’s de­but ad­dress to Par­lia­ment launch­ing its fourth ses­sion, in­cludes call­ing for col­lab­o­ra­tion from all sides for an­ti-crime law and mea­sures, paving the way for ef­forts to­wards bi-par­ti­san an­ti-crime talks, to which the UNC is open.

PM writes Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who replies with an­ti-crime plans. On the plat­form, she makes it clear Grif­fith will be on UNC’s team.

Cab­i­net Ch­aguara­mas re­treat plans fu­ture di­rec­tion, in­clud­ing 2024 Bud­get. PM rules out reshuf­fle de­spite calls for Hinds’ re­moval.

UNC MPs say: if the rag­ing crime con­tin­ues, there won’t be gifts un­der the Christ­mas tree, dou­bles down on Hinds; banks urged against hav­ing cit­i­zen/small busi­ness­es use ATM de­posits; UNC calls for on­line tax re­moval; calls for Bud­get at­ten­tion on specifics; slams Gov­ern­ment on Ni­quan, Drag­on Gas, mil­lions owed to TTEC by state agen­cies, weak prae­di­al lar­ce­ny units. Protests mount­ed over the un­opened Mara­bel­la school.

PM’s del­e­ga­tion at­tends T&T Am­bas­sador Den­nis Fran­cis’ in­au­gu­ra­tion as 73rd Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly pres­i­dent - and tells UN­GA of that day’s mur­der of the four Pe­terkin chil­dren at Gua­napo, lob­by­ing against weapons ex­por­ta­tion to T&T.

PDP leader Wat­son Duke wants talks with es­tranged col­league THA’s Au­gus­tine.

South ar­eas protest for wa­ter

OC­TO­BER: “Bright” Bud­get back­lash, hack­ing, rate hike

As pro­tes­tors out­side of Par­lia­ment use props to high­light hard­ship, Gov­ern­ment’s $59M bud­get for 2024 pitch­es “re­lief/sweet­en­ers for some sec­tors, in­clud­ing pub­lic ser­vants’ Christ­mas back­pay - but prop­er­ty tax in 2024. Per­sad-Bisses­sar says no pros­per­i­ty with­out se­cu­ri­ty.

Bud­get de­bate bomb­shells on probe of overex­tend­ed Mas­ter­cards is­sued in PP gov­ern­ment tenure, Tre­strail lands is­sues - and WASA staff cuts pro­ject­ed in 2024.

Point Fortin high­way of­fi­cial­ly opened with Gov­ern­ment fling­ing al­le­ga­tions against PP gov­ern­ment on OAS pro­ject­work. For­mer NAR leader Dr Car­son Charles ap­point­ed UNC sen­a­tor, de­fends his for­mer NID­CO pres­i­den­cy against Gov­ern­ment claims.

UNC Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans slam Gov­ern­ment on forex short­age, high prices, PM’s trips (and track suit at the Cari­com/Cana­da con­clu­sion), un­avail­able med­ical sup­plies; crime and eco­nom­ic han­dling, Tre­strail HDC is­sues. Va­len­cia and Ce­dros wa­ter short­age protest.

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemul urges TTPS not to dis­miss van­dal­ism of Hin­du tem­ples. Row­ley agrees with Per­sad-Bisses­sar that re­li­gious ha­tred and in­tol­er­ance weren’t why places of wor­ship were be­ing at­tacked. Per­sad-Bisses­sar draws strong Ma­ha Sab­ha crit­i­cism for her view.

UNC slams Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les/ Gov­ern­ment han­dling af­ter TSTT cy­ber at­tack - lat­est state agency suf­fer­ing hack­ing.

Pro­posed TTEC rate hikes go to Cab­i­net for ex­am­i­na­tion.

NO­VEM­BER: When fail­ing to talk is a crime

UNC leader faces dis­grun­tled Hin­dus out­side Di­vali Na­gar, call­ing for an apol­o­gy for “dis­re­spect­ing Hin­dus” on the re­marks about places of wor­ship be­ing at­tacked.

Cari­com/Sau­di Ara­bia Sum­mit gives PM chance to seek ven­tures, in­clud­ing on Petrotrin re­fin­ery.

AG Regi­nald Ar­mour, con­venor of an­ti-crime talks, asks Per­sad Bisses­sar for her team’s iden­ti­ties. She re­fus­es to sup­ply due to a lack of re­ply from Row­ley to her Oc­to­ber 14 to let­ter on an­ti-crime talks. He lat­er ac­cus­es the Op­po­si­tion of not want­i­ng talks, and segues off on Grif­fith. Per­sad-Bisses­sar ac­cus­es PM of Grif­fith “Ta­ban­ca”. Grif­fith opts out of talks. She rec­om­mends more as­pects for talks.

No word on talks since. Kam­la an­nounces UNC will do its own an­ti-crime con­sul­ta­tion with pub­lic.

PM as­sures To­bag­o­ni­ans will get every­thing Par­lia­ment ap­pro­pri­ates to them.

PEP’s Phillip Alexan­der re­signs as leader af­ter los­ing high-cost court mat­ters; now bat­ting via Cit­i­zens Union

* PNM’s war­rior of the East, Ter­ry Ron­don, dies -hailed at his fu­ner­al by UNC’s Warn­er, PN­MItes.

* For­mer NAR Fyz­abad MP Arthur Sander­son dies - trib­utes to a man who epit­o­mised coun­try be­fore par­ty.

DE­CEM­BER: Mar­lene, Duke, Anand, Ger­ald... but the Drag­on dances

PM on Lon­don At­lantic LNG mis­sions, speaks on out­comes and on Venezuela/Guyana bor­der fight stir­ring up the re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al land­scape. Per­sad-Bisses­sar slams his trip state­ments.

Row­ley, who ad­vised Per­sad-Bisses­sar to shut up on “me­di­a­tion calls,” is sub­se­quent­ly among re­gion­al lead­ers at St Vin­cent PM Ralph Gon­salves’ suc­cess­ful meet­ing to quell Venezue­lan/Guyanese sabre-rat­tling.

Gov­ern­ment files civ­il ac­tion against UNC’s Anand Ram­lo­gan (SC) and Ger­ald Ramdeen on mat­ters aris­ing from em­bat­tled KC Vin­cent Nel­son’s al­leged cor­rup­tion is­sues re­gard­ing both.

De­part­ed ex-PNM MP/Min­is­ter Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald hailed by Op­po­si­tion, Gov­ern­ment as cham­pi­on and a half

Ex-PM Bas­deo Pan­day in US in­ves­ti­gat­ing med­ical con­cerns about health.

UNC opens gen­er­al elec­tion nom­i­na­tions; two9term UNC Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles opts out of ac­tive pol­i­tics from 2025.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s first one-on-one TV in­ter­view - af­ter nine years; on plat­form warns her MPs against ex­ploit­ing Food­cards for sup­port; lob­bies groups to join UNC in fight­ing porn, mar­i­jua­na use at 18 and gam­bling. Will write EBC to rec­ti­fy 22-year-old elec­toral list.

Ver­bal “stones” pelt­ed at “Mick­ey Mouse “col­leagues by MPs Roodal Mooni­lal and Bar­ry Padarath. Af­ter a break-in at Munroe Road tem­ple, UNC’s Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly - al­leged­ly among “Mick­eys” - ex­press­es dis­ap­point­ment and lack of trust at those who claim to be “our po­lit­i­cal leader” triv­i­al­is­ing break-ins.

Paria re­port on the 4 LM­CS divers’ death to be re­leased in Par­lia­ment

PDP’s Duke hit with crim­i­nal charges

Tim­o­thy Hamel Smith’s HOPE launch­es, vow­ing to fight crime.

In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion in­ves­ti­ga­tion of PM a third time af­ter twice-clear­ance.

... Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert an­nounces Jan­u­ary 1 start to prop­er­ty tax. PM gifts T&T with “good tid­ings of great joy” over Drag­on deal li­cenc­ing.