But it seems set to compete for public focus on the renewed and troubling concerns about the role of the controversial religious/political Jamaat-al-Muslimeen organisation that was involved in the abortive July 1990 coup.

Whether or not the charges against Panday will have any significant impact on Panday's United National Congress’ bid to regain the government, cannot easily be determined, given the heightened political/racial polarisation in the society.

But weeks before Panday was charged under the country's Public Integrity Act, it was evident from media reports that the controversial religious/political figure of Yasin Abu Bakr and his Jamaat-al-Muslimeen were again looming large in the election campaign for next month's poll. More so than it did at the 1995 election that was lost by the now incumbent People's National Movement of Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

The recent report credited to the 'New York Daily News’ of the FBI probing a possible link between the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen and the infamous Al Qaeda group of terrorists, will certainly add grit to the political mill in the final weeks of the election campaign. Especially with the opposition UNC hammering away at a claimed "unholy alliance" and "conspiracy" involving the Jamaat and the PNM and both parties accusing each other of creating diversions from the central issues of alternative programmes for governing of the country.

The recent political faux pas by Prime Minister Manning, in somersaulting on a planned release of state land to Bakr's Jamaat, has certainly contributed to the increasing focus on the Muslimeen.

But Abu Bakr, the Imam of the Jamaat, a flamboyant ex-policeman turned religious leader and self-styled "conscience of the poor and exploited", has always been a wild card in the politics of the twin-island state.

Even before he led his Muslimeen disciples in an abortive coup 12 years ago with then Prime Minister and current President Robinson as one of his best known battered hostages, Abu Bakr has been a constant source of controversy in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago.

Having been compelled, by the force of media criticisms and public outcries, to rescind his decision to make available some five acres of State land to the Jamaat, Manning now finds himself very much on the defensive that he is in political concubinage with Abu Bakr.

Once viewed as an activist supporter of the PNM who subsequently switched high profile self-serving support to Panday's UNC, which he claims to have helped win the 1995 general election in some constituencies, the Imam is now on the firing line against Panday, as he seeks to explain his new alliance with Manning's party.

The numerical strength of the Jamaat across Trinidad and Tobago is not known. And often, its influence is exaggerated, especially in the poor and depressed inner-city communities of largely Afro-Trinidadians.

However, to follow police reports, it is the Jamaat's suspected links with the criminal underworld, the illegal guns often found in the possession of some of its associates, as well as court cases involving killings and charges of followers of the organisation, that have combined to contribute to fears of the Jamaat's influence and capacity to foster a destabilising climate of lawlessness.

Famous for his own boastful, disturbing statements, Abu Bakr's latest ominous public utterance, as reported in the 'Trinidad Express' last Wednesday, was that he could "give no assurance" against a repetition of the events of July 1990 (the abortive coup that wasted lives and cost many millions in arson, damages to property and looting).

Call it `robber talk’ if you like, as Trinidadians would say. That kind of talk is, nevertheless, a manifestation of the character of the Jamaat's leader.

And his organisation seems bent on pursuing its politics of defiance of authority, regularly and openly scoffing, as it does, at statements by the police, rulings of the court, and political pronouncements from either governing or opposition parties about him or his Jamaat.

With both the PNM and UNC locked in a tight race for the 36-member House of Representatives, and troubled at the prospect of a possible repeat of an 18-18 tie in seats, as happened at the December 10, 2001 election, Manning and Panday find themselves having to respond to the Imam and his Jamaat more than they would like to in the campaign for D-Day, October 7.

*Example: Manning-Abu Bakr: State land was given to Jamaat, adjacent to its Mucarapo Road headquarter complex, said the Prime Minister, to resolve an old row with the Jamaat. Two days later, in wake of a barrage of criticisms, Prime Minister makes a dramatic U-turn and said "no land for the Jamaat".

Angered by this somersault by Manning, the Imam nevertheless tried to salvage something of its new-found relationship with the PNM that had provided job placements for some of its known activists. He came up with the disclosure that he expects the government to fund the Jamaat's proposed secondary school for girls.

But Education Minister and wife of the Prime Minister, Hazel Manning, aware of the controversy over the now rescinded decision against giving state land to the Jamaat, was quick to explain last week that there were "no guarantees" that the organisation will get funds for its school.

*Example: Abu Bakr-Panday: The UNC leader slams the Imam for seeking "to hold the nation to ransom" and claimed that if the PNM wins the election, "the Jamaat will be in charge" of the new government.

The Jamaat's leader responded with a claim that he was given money, some TT$3,000 (US$500) by Panday, after the failed July 27, 1990 coup. He also said that Panday had prior knowledge of the coup and that was why he did not attend parliament on that day.

Abu Bakr had made a similar allegation against Manning during the 1995 election when he supported the UNC.

Now with Panday and Manning accusing him of lying - both the UNC and PNM leaders were at parliament but not at the time when the gun-toting Muslimeens invaded to launch their coup - Abu Bakr is clearly adding to a confused and tense political situation in the height of the political campaign.

With his critics accusing him of "dangerous opportunism" and "a betrayal of the people's trust" by his original decision to hand over state land to the Jamaat, Manning has evidently given Panday a stick to beat him and the PNM.

At this critical juncture in the campaign, when possible shift in voters support in the five marginal constituencies remain extremely crucial for an outright victory for either the PNM or UNC, the 'Muslimeen factor’ looms large.