The fi­nal good­byes be­gin to­day for for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day.

Pan­day’s body will be trans­port­ed through the streets of Port-of-Spain to the Red House, where it will lay in state for pub­lic view­ing.

This will be one of two view­ings be­fore the fu­ner­al at 8.30 am in San Fer­nan­do next Tues­day.

The plans were con­firmed by the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­istry yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing arrange­ments with Pan­day’s fam­i­ly.

Pan­day, the coun­try’s fifth prime min­is­ter, was air­lift­ed to Flori­da on De­cem­ber 12 for med­ical treat­ment. In his life­time, he had sev­er­al car­diac re­lat­ed is­sues. He died on Mon­day evening at a Jack­sonville hos­pi­tal. He was brought back home via a Caribbean Air­lines flight at 7 pm on Wednes­day.

Yes­ter­day, the min­istry al­so con­firmed that his fu­ner­al will be held at 8.30 am next Tues­day at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA), San Fer­nan­do.

It will be fol­lowed lat­er in the day by a cre­ma­tion at the Shore of Peace, Mos­qui­to Creek. Be­fore that, the body of the for­mer prime min­is­ter will lay in State for pub­lic view­ing at two lo­ca­tions in North (to­day at the Red House) and South (at SAPA on Mon­day).

To­day’s view­ing at the Red House will be from 10 am to 5.30 pm.

It will be trans­port­ed to the Par­lia­ment un­der mil­i­tary es­cort. The pro­ces­sion be­gins at 8.45 am from Broad­way, Port-of-Spain, then on to In­de­pen­dence Square south, pro­ceed­ing west to Aber­crom­by Street and north to the Red House.

The body will be tak­en to the Ro­tun­da (sec­ond lev­el) of the Red House.

The view­ing at SAPA on Mon­day will be from 9 am to 5.30 pm.

Pres­i­dent, PM, Op­po­si­tion to pay re­spects

Pan­day’s fam­i­ly, wife Oma and daugh­ters Mick­ela, Nico­la, and Vasta­la, will be at the Red House view­ing to­day, it is un­der­stood. They are ex­pect­ed to trav­el from South Trinidad this morn­ing in con­voy with the Dass Fu­ner­al Home hearse bear­ing Pan­day’s body.

Pan­day’s el­dest daugh­ter Niala (with his first wife, who passed away) is ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in the coun­try from over­seas by Sun­day.

Al­so among those ex­pect­ed to pay their re­spects at the Red House to­day are Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, as well as Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters.

Op­po­si­tion MPs will be present from 2 pm.

The Red House lo­ca­tion of the Par­lia­ment had been the seat of Pan­day’s UNC gov­ern­ment over its term of 1995 to 2001.

Pan­day was last at the Red House in Sep­tem­ber 2023 for the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of the fourth ses­sion of the Par­lia­ment. Seat­ed in the VIP sec­tion with his daugh­ter Mick­ela, he had been greet­ed by mem­bers of both the PNM Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion UNC.

To­day’s event will be the first time a for­mer prime min­is­ter’s body will lay in State at the Red House since the build­ing re­opened in 2020 af­ter ex­ten­sive ren­o­va­tion.

The body of T&T’s first prime min­is­ter, the late Dr Er­ic Williams, was placed at the Red House for pub­lic view­ing in 1981 when he died. The body of for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, who died in 2016, was lain in State at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA), as the Red House was un­der ren­o­va­tion then.

Big screens for fu­ner­al venue

Con­do­lence books are open at the Par­lia­ment, mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions around Trinidad and at the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly in To­ba­go.

Con­do­lence books will al­so be opened to­day and on Mon­day at the Op­po­si­tion Leader’s of­fice, Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, at the UNC’s head­quar­ters at Mulchan Seuchan Road, Ch­agua­nas, and at UNC’s North Re­gion­al of­fice on the East­ern Main Road.

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne, who signed the book at the Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, said, “All arrange­ments are be­ing made in ex­treme­ly close con­sul­ta­tions with Mr Pan­day’s fam­i­ly and with their wish­es.”

Browne al­so met with mem­bers of the fam­i­ly and their pun­dit to fi­nalise arrange­ments. He said for Tues­day’s fu­ner­al, there will be big screens in­side and out­side of the SAPA venue for as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble to be ac­com­mo­dat­ed. Pan­day’s cre­ma­tion is the on­ly one sched­uled for the Shore of Peace on that day.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands af­ter Pan­day’s body ar­rived home on Wednes­day, sev­er­al peo­ple gath­ered at his Palmiste home, in­clud­ing for­mer UNC min­is­ters Gan­ga Singh, Ken Em­rith and Car­los John.