By Clint Chan Tack Monday, March 24 2008

LOCAL GOVERNMENT elections will take place this year. This was the word yesterday from senior government sources as election machinery in the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) and the Opposition UNC Alliance have started to rumble once again.

Sources said the local government reform initiative is currently before a cabinet subcommittee and there have been regular meetings between the committee and officials of the Ministry of Local Government. Government officials yesterday disclosed it will not be long before legislation to implement local government reform is brought to Parliament and the election date is announced. “We are almost there. Elections will take place,” stated one official. A second government official added that the law permits a three-month period after July 12, the constitutional date for the local government election, in which the polls can take place and there will be no need for Parliament to further extend the life of local government bodies this year.

PNM public relations officer and Health Minister Jerry Narace said election dates are the prerogative of Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Narace added that the PNM is currently preparing for its annual convention on June 28 and 29. However party sources said the PNM is always on an election footing and will be ready whenever Manning whips out the paper containing the election date from his back pocket. Sources added that the local government election will take place after the PNM convention and depending on how the reform exercise goes, the Prime Minister could announce the election date at the convention. At the opening of the Ninth Parliament at the Red House on December 17, 2007, Manning said the local government election will take place once local government reform is completed.

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday said the UNC A’s leadership council will meet this week and the upcoming polls will be one of the issues to be discussed. Panday dismissed claims that the other five parties which comprise the alliance (DPTT, NAR Trinidad, LFL, DNA and NDA) have been left out in the cold while the UNC A proceeds with local government preparations. Panday said the leaders have been holding informal talks on a regular basis.

Democratic Party of TT (DPTT) leader Steve Alvarez confirmed the council will meet at the House of Chan restaurant at Emerald Plaza in St Augustine on Tuesday at 6.30 pm.

Noting Gillian Lucky’s resignation from the Congress of the People (COP), Alvarez again resurrected the familiar unity mantra spoken about by the PNM’s political opponents which has failed to materialise prior to the NAR’s 1986 election victory.

“Inevitably, everybody must come together,” he stated. Despite overtures by members of their respective parties, Panday and COP leader Winston Dookeran have never agreed to an alliance of their parties since the COP was formed on September 10, 2006.