Taken for a ride by the PNM

THE EDITOR: Even though the election date of April 28 has been floating around for a while, the way the government went about it seemed over-orchestrated, over-contrived and, in my opinion, duplicitous.

Hosting a show on Sunday in Woodford Square, the then prime minister announced that he would be resigning from midnight and presented candidates as though an election date was already announced.

The next day a brand new Prime Minister and Attorney General were sworn in that morning and in the afternoon a brand new Cabinet with a reshuffle in major portfolios like security and finance, giving the impression, at least to me, that this very new PM and his Cabinet will serve for some time to show their mettle and demonstrate their competence.

Instead, within 24 hours Parliament is dissolved and the general election is called via a press release by a Prime Minister who never never led his troops in Parliament. For such an event, the custom is that it is announced in Parliament or with an address to the nation.

What was the point of the performance in Woodford Square on Sunday, instating a new PM and a Cabinet reshuffle on Monday, only to have Parliament dissolved in record time on Tuesday?

I don’t know about you, but I certainly was fooled. As Winston James said, “I was taken for a ride.” Is that what we are to expect, a ride, from a future Stuart Young government?

GHASSAN YOUSEPH

via e-mail