Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar leaves for Jamaica this week for her first overseas trip.She will be attending the annual CARICOM summit in Montego Bay.
Persad-Bissessar is expected to leave Saturday for the conference, which ends on Wednesday.
She will be accompanied by Nicholas, Foreign Affairs Minister Suruj Rambachan, Trade Minister Stephen Cadiz, National Security adviser Gary Griffith and technical officials.
Trinidad and Tobago is responsible for energy and national security within CARICOM.
Sources say Persad-Bissessar is likely to appoint Finance Minister Winston Dookeran to act as PM. Dookeran leads the Congress of the People (COP), which is the second major party in the People's Partnership (PP) coalition and is the only member of cabinet who has previously served as acting PM.
He had that responsibility in the NAR administration and took charge of the government after the July 1990 coup in which insurrectionists led by Abu Bakr held Prime Minister ANR Robinson hostage in the Parliament.
The Prime Minister has the sole authority to determine who will act in the post since the Trinidad and Tobago governing system does not cater for a Deputy PM.
Persad-Bissessar acted as PM once during the Panday administration but Panday also appointed other members of cabinet to act while he was on overseas assignments.
Former Prime Minister Patrick Manning's preferred choice to act as PM was Dr Lenny Saith, who was not an elected representative.
No comments:
Post a Comment