His at­ten­dance at the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM’s) ral­ly yes­ter­day has stirred some spec­u­la­tion on so­cial me­dia of a pos­si­ble en­dorse­ment of the par­ty, but for­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) mem­ber Lar­ry Lal­la, SC, in­sists that he still isn’t com­mit­ted to any po­lit­i­cal en­ti­ty.

Lal­la, on Face­book yes­ter­day morn­ing shared a post fea­tur­ing the PNM’s 41 can­di­dates for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions with a cap­tion where he ex­pressed his in­ten­tion to at­tend the par­ty’s pre­sen­ta­tion cer­e­mo­ny at Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain, in the af­ter­noon.

The event was al­so sig­nif­i­cant as it fea­tured out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley as he ad­dressed the pub­lic for the last time in pub­lic of­fice.

On Feb­ru­ary 24, Lal­la sub­mit­ted his res­ig­na­tion let­ter to the UNC’s chair­man Dave Tan­coo, where he cit­ed his in­abil­i­ty to bring about re­forms with­in the par­ty.

He un­suc­cess­ful­ly chal­lenged the par­ty’s lead­er­ship in 2015, 2020 and 2024.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Lal­la said his pres­ence at the PNM event was not ev­i­dence of any sup­port for the par­ty, but he felt it ap­pro­pri­ate to hear Row­ley’s fi­nal re­marks.

Lal­la said that in ad­di­tion to the his­toric na­ture of the event, he in­tend­ed to at­tend as many dif­fer­ent po­lit­i­cal gath­er­ings as pos­si­ble.

“I in­tend through­out this elec­tion pe­ri­od to vis­it meet­ings held by var­i­ous par­ties and hear what is be­ing said and I think every right-think­ing cit­i­zen of our coun­try should do the same.

“I’m not aligned to any par­ty right now but to­day’s a sig­nif­i­cant day be­cause a sig­nif­i­cant event is go­ing to take place, be­cause the Prime Min­is­ter who has been sit­ting for the past ten years is go­ing to make an ex­it speech and I think it’s im­por­tant to hear what he has to say.”

De­spite him not en­dors­ing the PNM, Lal­la said he felt in­com­ing Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has the po­ten­tial to “make a very good Prime Min­is­ter” and urged the pub­lic to hear what plans he had for the coun­try.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from re­porters dur­ing Phag­wa cel­e­bra­tions at the Petrotrin Recre­ation Grounds, Clarke Road, Pe­nal, yes­ter­day, UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said of Lal­la’s de­ci­sion, “It’s a free coun­try. A per­son is free to go wher­ev­er they wish.”

A PNM par­ty

Yes­ter­day had been a long day for the PNM as af­ter 10 am, 169 Gen­er­al Coun­cil mem­bers and 750 par­ty group del­e­gates gath­ered at City Hall, Port-of-Spain where the PNM’s 41 can­di­dates were first pre­sent­ed.

With loud cheers for their can­di­dates, PNM mem­bers tapped in­to the Car­ni­val vibes up­ping the tem­po with Bun­ji Gar­lin’s Car­ry It as can­di­dates walked the stage be­gin­ning with Trinci­ty/ Mal­oney can­di­date Camille Robin­son-Reg­is dubbed the “War­rior Queen”. Young was pre­sent­ed last with hands up­raised. The same pat­tern took place at Wood­ford Square which kicked off pro­ceed­ings at 3.30 in­stead of the promised 2 pm.

While some sought shade from the trees, oth­ers with flags in hand rushed stage side for an up-close view of the event.

Laven­tille West can­di­date, Ka­reem Mar­celle,  chipped in­to the Square with Team Ka­reem sup­port­ers. Mu­sic trucks and a cel­e­bra­to­ry at­mos­phere were every­where.

Oth­ers showed sup­port on their T-shirts with slo­gans like Mov­ing with Mukesh Ram­s­ingh in Pointe-a-Pierre; Lisa At­wa­ter for Moru­ga Table­land!; Mov­ing with Man­ning; Faris 2025; Rock­lyn Mo­hammed for Princes Town and Young’s Army.

While sup­port­ers large­ly com­prised the PNM’s tra­di­tion­al base, there was a no­tice­able in­jec­tion of non-tra­di­tion­al back­ing sev­er­al can­di­dates con­test­ing UNC-held con­stituen­cies.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, life­long Princes Town res­i­dent Kevon Sawh said while the con­stituen­cy had the rep­u­ta­tion of be­ing a “strong­hold” for the UNC, he felt that the PNM’s can­di­date for the area Rock­lyn Mo­hammed had a “good chance” of suc­cess.

“He’s a son of the soil, any­body who comes to him he al­ways does his best to help. I’ve known him for quite some time now.

“He’s a calm, friend­ly, re­spectable guy who’s very so­lu­tion-ori­ent­ed.”

Long­time Beetham Gar­dens res­i­dent Al­bert Sprott said he was fa­mil­iar with Mar­celle’s gen­eros­i­ty and his roots in the com­mu­ni­ty, not­ing that while the com­mu­ni­ty may be sad­dened to see Fitzger­ald Hinds leave as MP, they were op­ti­mistic the con­stituen­cy was in good hands.

“I saw Ka­reem grow from the days of kinder­garten right up to now. Even when he was called to the bar right there at the Hall of Jus­tice, he’s a man who has been there right by the side of the com­mu­ni­ty.

—With re­port­ing by Gail Alexan­der