OPPOSITION parties, trade unions and civic groups are intensely working to present Trinidad and Tobago’s ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) with the biggest ‘unity force’ it has ever faced for the coming May 24 general election.

The exact composition of candidates involved in the coalition force arrayed against Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s PNM, which has been in power since 2001, is expected to be formally announced this weekend.

Amid rallying cries of “time for change”, the PNM will now be fiercely battling to retain the state power against an opposition force broadened, as of last week, from an electoral arrangement between the major United National Congress (UNC) and the Congress of People (COP), to include three newly formed parties with links to major trade unions.

Together, this ‘electoral alliance’ or, as they prefer to be called, “unity force’, will be facing an electorate of over one million people (1,040,000) in an unprecedented duel against the PNM for a 41-member House of Representatives.

At the dissolution of parliament, the incumbent PNM held 26 seats to the UNC’s 15 — based on the results of the November 2007 general election.

At that poll the UNC (then under the leadership of Basdeo Panday — defeated at internal party elections last January by Kamla Persad-Bissessar), had secured its 15 seats with almost 30 per cent of votes.

The COP (led by Winston Dookeran) obtained 22.7 per cent for both to record a combined 52.37 per cent to the PNM’s 45.85.per cent.

For the May 24 election showdown, there are some significant differences — largely on the opposition front — in the country’s history of parliamentary politics, chief among them is having a woman as the declared prime ministerial candidate.

Persad-Bissessar is the new UNC leader — a lawyer by profession and once loyal disciple of her admitted “guru” Panday. Now she is being hailed, first by COP’s leader Dookeran, as “the magnet for change”.

Additionally, the UNC/COP alliance has been strengthened by attracting to its ranks the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) as well as the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITUN) and the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC).

Further, a recently formed Tobago Organisation of People (TOP) will be contesting the traditional two parliamentary seats in that sister isle of Trinidad, as an ally of the expanded “unity force”.

The UNC leader has officially announced the numbers (though not names) of constituencies to be contested by her party — 23 for her party, COP 15, two for TOP and two also for the trade union movement-based MSJ.

Manning’s Strategy

Naturally, not all unions can be expected to support the opposition “unity force for change”. But none has yet publicly expressed backing for the PNM to remain in power.

Without being part of the “unity force”, a new group has also mushroomed to seek parliamentary representation in Laventille — the traditional bedrock base for the PNM since it first came to power under its founder, the late Eric Williams, in 1956.

The group, which goes by the acronym LOVE (Laventille Outreach Vertical Enrichment), is attempting to build its platform around the message, “A vote for the PNM is not only political suicide, but literal suicide…”

The PNM will not be amused by this kind of politicking. And its leader and prime minister is doing his political best to project an image of supreme confidence to retain the reins of state power, although he evidently felt compelled to announce the May 24 election before reaching even the mid-term of his five-year administration.

A central strategy of Manning’s campaign is to remind citizens that “coalition governments do not work”, rattling off examples at home and abroad. He also underscores that message with claims of a mix of ‘hatred’ and “political opportunism”, more than any shared commitment on social and economic policies for governance that brought the opposition forces together.

In his repeated warnings that a coalition government in Port of Spain “will soon collapse”, he cited the example of the Arthur Robinson-led “One Love” administration of strange bedfellows (from which Panday was to depart and later launch the UNC).

T&T/Grenada treaty

By last Wednesday Manning was to further profile his optimism for victory on May 24 by doing, in full glare of television cameras, exactly what Persad-Bissessar –anxious to become the new prime minister — had earlier warned against.

The warning to Manning was NOT to sign with his Grenadian counterpart, Tillman Thomas, a maritime delimitation treaty with neighbouring Grenada before the forthcoming election, as it was “essential” to subject it to independent scrutiny to ensure that it was in the best national interest of Trinidad and Tobago.

Ironically, Grenada’s Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell despatched a letter to Manning last week as arrangements were in train for the signing ceremony, advising against an occurrence that could well prove economically disadvantageous to the interest of the Grenadian people.

It is relevant to note here that negotiations for the maritime delimitation treaty have been taking place over some 17 years under successive administrations in Port of Spain and St George’s.

The question, therefore, arises as to whether it was really necessary for prime ministers Manning and Thomas to seemingly rush the signing ceremony within five weeks of a new general election, viewed as most defining in Trinidad and Tobago’s post-independence history.

Meanwhile, preparations are in full swing for Nomination Day, May 3, for what’s being profiled as the “mother of all elections” in Trinidad and Tobago on May 24.