Trinidad’s PM Offers To Share Power
By Angela Potter

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - Prime Minister Basdeo Panday offered to share power with Trinidad’s opposition on Tuesday after an election tie sparked a political crisis in the oil-rich Caribbean country.

Preliminary results from Monday’s parliamentary vote showed Panday’s United National Congress, supported mainly by descendants of East Indians, won 18 of the 36 parliament seats, the same number as opposition leader Patrick Manning’s black-dominated People’s National Movement. Final results were expected Wednesday after a recount in two constituencies.

Panday, who become the country’s first prime minister of East Indian descent when he was first elected in 1995, announced he would consider all power-sharing options, including alternating leadership.

"I consider it mandatory that both political parties should respect the expressed and collective will of the electorate," Panday said. "I shall therefore propose to the leader of the People’s National Movement that we make partisan agendas secondary to the national interest, and that we work out an appropriate arrangement for sharing power."

Panday and Manning met late Tuesday along with President Arthur Robinson, who under the constitution has the power to appoint the prime minister. Manning emerged smiling, saying he expected a government would be formed later this week.

"The leaders of the country understand precisely the situation that faces us and we are determined to do something about it in the shortest possible time," Manning said.

Trinidad and Tobago’s constitution, drafted after it gained independence from Britain in 1962, was interpreted differently by both Panday and Manning after they learned of the tie late Monday. Panday said he believed it was up him, as incumbent prime minister, to form a government. Manning thought it was up to the president.

Robinson - a longtime political rival of Panday - has the authority to call upon any Parliament member he believes can command a majority to become prime minister. He has made no public comments, but was expected to address the nations 1.3 million citizens Wednesday.

Many speculate that Robinson, a former prime minister and a longtime rival of Panday, would not call on him to stay on as prime minister

The elections sharpened tensions between descendants of African slaves and descendants of East Indian indentured laborers, who almost evenly split the country’s population.

The People’s National Movement has accused Panday’s government of tolerating corruption and reserving government jobs for those of Indian descent. Panday’s supporters say he has brought economic progress and infrastructure improvements.