Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Pres­sure con­tin­ues to mount with­in the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) as fi­nan­cial mem­bers for­mal­ly called for an Ex­tra­or­di­nary Gen­er­al Meet­ing (EGM), cit­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­vi­sions and se­ri­ous con­cerns aris­ing out of Car­ni­val 2026.

In a press re­lease dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 26, mem­bers con­firmed that the re­quest was sub­mit­ted in keep­ing with Ar­ti­cle 25 of TU­CO’s Con­sti­tu­tion, which al­lows for an EGM once at least ten per cent of the fi­nan­cial mem­ber­ship sup­ports the req­ui­si­tion.

The re­lease not­ed that the con­sti­tu­tion re­quires an up­dat­ed list of fi­nan­cial mem­bers to be read­i­ly avail­able, par­tic­u­lar­ly when Ar­ti­cle 25 is ac­ti­vat­ed.

Mem­bers have there­fore re­quest­ed time­ly ac­cess to that list to en­sure com­pli­ance with Clause 2(a), which man­dates that the ob­jec­tives of the meet­ing be clear­ly stat­ed and prop­er­ly signed by the req­ui­site num­ber of fi­nan­cial mem­bers.

The re­quest fol­lows what mem­bers de­scribed as a trou­bling Car­ni­val sea­son marked by “al­le­ga­tions, ac­cu­sa­tions, ad­min­is­tra­tive is­sues, and un­re­solved ques­tions re­lat­ing to the op­er­a­tions and gov­er­nance of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.”

Con­tro­ver­sy erupt­ed af­ter sev­er­al ca­lyp­so­ni­ans did not make it to the Ca­lyp­so semi­fi­nal at Skin­ner Park with po­lit­i­cal and so­cial com­men­tary songs. This prompt­ed TU­CO pres­i­dent Ains­ley King to de­ny cen­sor­ing po­lit­i­cal songs from the com­pe­ti­tion, say­ing that the ex­clu­sion of some so­cial com­men­taries re­sult­ed from the judg­ing process, not a ban. King stressed that TU­CO aimed to keep the com­pe­ti­tion neu­tral and free from be­ing con­sid­ered as a po­lit­i­cal par­ty ral­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, these mat­ters are of “suf­fi­cient im­por­tance to war­rant ur­gent and trans­par­ent dis­cus­sion by the full body.”

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, ca­lyp­son­ian Roger “Body­guard” Mo­hammed said the de­ci­sion to go pub­lic was de­lib­er­ate.

“The de­ci­sion to make this re­quest pub­lic re­flects the need for trans­paren­cy and en­sures that mem­bers and the wider pub­lic are aware that a for­mal con­sti­tu­tion­al process has been ini­ti­at­ed,” Mo­hammed stat­ed, as he elab­o­rat­ed on the de­tails sent in the re­lease.

The press state­ment al­so con­firmed that mem­bers are await­ing a re­sponse from the ex­ec­u­tive re­gard­ing ac­cess to the up­dat­ed fi­nan­cial mem­bers’ list and the sched­ul­ing of the re­quest­ed meet­ing.

Ad­dress­ing claims that the move is po­lit­i­cal­ly mo­ti­vat­ed in an elec­tion year, Mo­hammed did not shy away from the ques­tion.

“The TU­CO pres­i­dent has stat­ed in the past that it is an elec­tion year, and he ex­pects things like this to hap­pen, that we are cam­paign­ing,” Mo­hammed said. “At this stage, I am will­ing to of­fer my­self. So, he may not be wrong in that re­gard,” he added. “But that does not take away from the le­git­i­ma­cy of the is­sues be­ing raised.”

Mo­hammed main­tained that the call for the EGM is ground­ed in con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and wide­spread dis­sat­is­fac­tion, both with­in the mem­ber­ship and among the wider pub­lic fol­low­ing the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion.

“This is about ac­count­abil­i­ty, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and gov­er­nance,” he said. “Mem­bers have fol­lowed the con­sti­tu­tion. Now we await the ex­ec­u­tive’s re­sponse.”

Guardian Me­dia at­tempt­ed to con­tact the TU­CO pres­i­dent, but sev­er­al calls to his cell­phone went unan­swered.