Trinidad PM warns of 'coup plot'

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Basdeo Panday has warned that opposition groups are plotting to seize power in the Caribbean state.

Mr Panday told a stunned parliament on Tuesday: "The government has received information that certain groups are amassing arms, recently smuggled into the country, for what is believed to be a violent attempt to take control of the country."

Information has come to the attention of my government which would only lead to the conclusion that interests opposed to the UNC are in collusion to seize power, some by violent means

Basdeo Panday

The prime minister's warning came three days after the opposition leader, Patrick Manning, called for street demonstrations against what he described as "an illegal government".

The southern Caribbean republic has been immersed in a constitutional crisis since the 11 December general election, in which the ruling United National Congress (UNC) was returned to power with only a narrow majority.

The opposition People's National Movement (PNM), led by Mr Manning, has disputed the election results.

Mr Panday accused the opposition leader "and those in alliance with him" of conspiring to remove the constitutionally-elected government.

The prime minister said that since the election, the country had witnessed "an unfolding conspiracy to defeat the will of the electorate who with the largest number of votes given to a single political party, re-elected the UNC to government, the first such political development since the Eric Williams era".

Feuding

The highly charged political feud began in December when poll results showed the UNC had 19 seats, the PNM 16 and the minority National Alliance for Reconstruction one seat.

Patrick Manning has called for street protests

The PNM launched a legal challenge against two victorious UNC candidates for allegedly holding foreign citizenship in violation of election rules.

Correspondents say the political situation has raised the prospect of possible instability to a part of the Caribbean that has remained relatively free of unrest for several years.

It has also fuelled tensions between Trinidadians of African and East Indian descent, who tend to vote along party lines - Africans for the PNM and the ethnic Asian community for the UNC.

The already difficult relationship between Prime Minister Panday and President Arthur Robinson declined further still when the president refused to appoint seven UNC candidates defeated in the December poll to the position of government senators or ministers.

The government sits as a minority in the Senate - the upper house of the republic's parliament.