Gail Alexan­der

Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice leader David Ab­du­lah says he ex­pect­ed the date of the gen­er­al elec­tions in mid-Au­gust or Sep­tem­ber.

“Ob­vi­ous­ly, with the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion, the Prime Min­is­ter doesn’t want to go to an­oth­er Bud­get.

“The op­tions were lim­it­ed so it was ei­ther go be­fore the SEA and oth­er ex­ams on Au­gust 20 or ear­ly Sep­tem­ber,” Ab­du­lah said on Fri­day af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced Au­gust 10 at the elec­tion date.

He added, “We have four can­di­dates and may add one or two more. We may en­dorse oth­er peo­ple and they may en­dorse us. We’ll see what they’re of­fer­ing,“

Port-of-Spain Peo­ple’s Move­ment leader Louis Lee Sing, whose part is part of the Bet­ter Unit­ed con­glom­er­a­tion which sought MSJ’s par­tic­i­pa­tion, said his par­ty is out of the elec­tions.

Lee Sing said, “I may be on plat­forms but we’re not hav­ing can­di­dates.

“This was the on­ly date avail­able to the Prime Min­is­ter to max­imise COVID ben­e­fits, which is fad­ing with each PNM er­ror—but this is dev­il take the hind­most for vot­ers.”

De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty of T&T leader Steve Al­varez was ex­pect­ed to con­test in Moru­ga and in­de­pen­dent Er­rol Fa­bi­en is fo­cus­ing on St Joseph, Lee Sing added.

Con­gress of the Peo­ple leader Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan said she will speak by Wednes­day on their po­si­tion and can­di­dates. She felt eco­nom­ic is­sues, COVID prob­lems and re­cent protests prompt­ed the ear­ly elec­tions.

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front leader Mikela Pan­day mean­while said, “We’re con­sult­ing with sup­port­ers on our di­rec­tion.”

Move­ment for Na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment leader Garvin Nicholas said MND has three can­di­dates for Diego Mar­tin seats, in­clud­ing for­mer ex­tem­po monarch My­ron “My­ron B” Bruce.