Elections coming? PNM summons troops for battle

The People’s National Movement (PNM) confirmed to the Trinidad Guardian Saturday that it is preparing for an election. Party chairman Conrad Enill told the paper the local elections will be held as scheduled but declined to say if a snap election is also coming.

Enill said the party has entered a full election campaign mode but only party leader, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, can say if there will also be a general election soon.

The PNM met at a Port of Spain hotel Saturday behind closed doors with most of its sitting members of Parliament and senators, top party officials and key representatives from all 41 constituencies.

Enill told the paper that the party is making plans to send its people into the various communities to make sure the PNM is ready for a vote. The plan involves a street-to-street and house-to-house campaign in each constituency, with special attention to the 15 held by the opposition.

He said the party is going back into the communities to get feedback from people about how they perceive the party particularly with regard to the promises the PNM made in the 2007 election campaign.

While Manning has been conducting a cross-country "education campaign" dealing mainly with a proposed new constitution, Enill said this is the first time the party is meeting with the people "from the centre...in a coordinated way, with the central executive directing operations".

He said, “Normally what happens is every week parliamentarians are expected to meet with their constituents. But this one is very specific. We want to be certain that the communities understand what we are doing and if not, explain it to them.”

He said the party is "going to find our what are their concerns and whether they are being addressed.”

The Guardian asked specifically about whether there will be a general election any time soon but he did not give a clear answer.

“Let me put it this way," Enill told the paper. "Under the Westminster system a general election must be held at the latest by 2012. But the system allows that the political leader can call elections at any time. So really, it is his issue to call elections whenever he chooses.

“But the party is doing what it should do, preparing itself and making sure that we leave no stone unturned as it relates to party preparations,” he said.

Enill told the paper Manning stressed to everyone at the meeting the need for the party’s organisations to function efficiently at this time.

Deputy political leader responsible for party matters, Ambassador Joan Yuille-Williams, conducted the rest of the meeting he said, dealing with deatils of the community campaigning, in particular staging cottage meetings.

Former PNM cabinet minister Dr Keith Rowley has appealed to the PNM to deal with corruption in the party, saying a future election would be decided on the UDeCOTT affair.

Read the story: PNM worried about Manning-Rowley rift

Prof. Selwyn Ryan has been writing about this in his regular column in the Sunday Express.

Read the column: The UDeCOTT election, Round 1
Read the column: The UDeCOTT election, Part 2