Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) has an­nounced that its in­ter­nal elec­tions will be held on Ju­ly 12, fol­low­ing months of mount­ing pres­sure from stake­hold­ers in the cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty in the af­ter­math of the Car­ni­val 2026 sea­son.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so for­mal­ly con­firmed the dates for all of its na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions, end­ing weeks of spec­u­la­tion with­in the en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try about when the gov­ern­ing ca­lyp­so body would re­turn to its mem­ber­ship for a man­date.

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, TU­CO said its long-an­tic­i­pat­ed elec­tions will take place on Ju­ly 12 and this will be pre­ced­ed by its An­nu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing (AGM) on June 20 at the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion’s VIP Lounge at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain.

The an­nounce­ment sets the stage for what is ex­pect­ed to be a close­ly watched in­ter­nal con­test, with artistes and cul­tur­al com­men­ta­tors hav­ing called for greater con­sti­tu­tion­al ac­count­abil­i­ty and a re­newed lead­er­ship di­rec­tion for the art form fol­low­ing this year’s na­tion­al fes­ti­val.