Manning and PandayPORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP):
PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning has asked the President to adjourn Parliament and announced Trinidad and Tobago will hold fresh elections within six months the third in three years. Manning made the decision after the twin-island nation's two main political parties failed for a second day to elect a Speaker of the House.
The dispute is rooted in a tie in the December general election that reflects the oil-rich Caribbean nation's split on ethnic lines between those descended from Africans and those descended from East Indians.
"We have seen enough to convince us that the Opposition had no intention of electing a Speaker and so we thought that the interest of Trinidad and Tobago will be best served by ending the Parliament and holding new elections," Manning said Saturday.
He asked President A.N.R. Robinson to prorogue Parliament, which would allow it to be reconvened should an agreement be struck within the six-month period before elections must be held. Manning stopped short of asking for Parliament to be dissolved, which would require elections almost immediately.
On Friday, and again on Saturday former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday's United National Congress party and Manning's People's National Movement cancelled out each other's votes during the election for a Speaker. A majority of votes is needed.
"This proves... that Manning and his Government cannot control the Parliament because he does not have a majority in the House," Panday said.
Old rivalries between Manning and Panday came to a head when December elections gave each party 18 seats. Robinson resolved the crisis by appointing Manning
Prime Minister, but Panday has since refused to co-operate, saying Robinson was wrong to appoint Manning.
Manning and Robinson are Afro-Trinidadian while Panday became the country's first Prime Minister of Indian descent when he was elected in 1995.
