PORT OF SPAIN (IPS)�Six years ago, Arthur Robinson used a two-seat parliamentary toehold to break an electoral tie and establish a coalition government. Today, as president, he was given the task of picking a premier and settling a dead heat in which the governing United National Congress (UNC) and main Peoples National Movement (PNM) opposition parties claimed victory.

The Dec. 10 general elections, coming four years ahead of the constitutional date, resulted in the incumbent UNC opposition PNM winning 18 seats each in the 36-member parliament�the first such result in the country�s history.

The two other political parties�including UNC breakaway Team Unity, headed by ex-Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj�won no seats.

There is no mandated time frame for the president to act and political analysts said Mr. Robinson likely would play for time.

�I would be surprised if the president acts hastily,� said one political observer, pointing to the fact that, after elections a year ago, Mr. Robinson had waited for the official results from the Elections and Boundaries Commission before reappointing Basdeo Panday as prime minister at the head of a UNC government.

Mr. Panday said that given the Dec. 10 results, Mr. Robinson must call upon the incumbent to form a government. �The will of the people has been expressed,� he declared.

�I reach out to all our nation,� Mr. Panday told supporters election night, as it became clear that neither he nor PNM leader Patrick Manning would have the automatic right to lead a government.

�The United National Congress will make room and we will open space for everyone without exception,� Mr. Panday said, adding, �I am strongly resolved that the UNC shall give everyone an opportunity to be a winner regardless of party affiliation.�

Mr. Manning, however, told PNM supporters there was no �precedent set in the Commonwealth under the Westminster model� that would require Mr. Robinson to appoint the incumbent to form a government in the event of a tie in general elections.

Describing the results as �very interesting,� Mr. Manning said the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution grants the president absolute independence in appointing a prime minister from among all elected parliamentarians.

He added that Mr. Panday had �no moral authority� to govern since his administration had been forced to call the polls four years ahead of schedule because it lost its majority, and because his party failed to win a clear mandate from the electorate.

�If any grouping has a moral authority to form a government in Trinidad and Tobago it is the Peoples National Movement,� Mr. Manning declared.

Section 76 (1) of the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution provides for the president to appoint a prime minister from either the leader of the party in the house that commands a majority or �where it appears to him that no party commands a majority, the member of the house who in his judgment is likely to command the majority.�

Israel Khan, a prominent attorney and president of the Legal Aid Clinic here, said Mr. Panday, as incumbent, should first be given the opportunity to form a government pending fresh elections.

�Fortunately for him, a budget has been passed recently so he would have some money to run the country,� Mr. Khan said.

General elections in 1995 also ended in a tie between the UNC and PNM, which won 17 seats apiece. Mr. Robinson, whose National Alliance for Reconstruction garnered two seats, tipped the scales and formed a coalition government with the UNC.

Political analyst and professor Selwyn Ryan said he wondered if that experience might now inform Robinson�s decision.

�Will he invite the incumbents to continue in office on the ground that they have not been defeated, or will he use the logic which he employed in 1995,� Mr. Ryan said, �that the government did not get the vote of confidence for which they went to the polls?�

Mr. Ryan also questioned how the supporters of the two main parties would react to the president�s decision.

�Will they take to the streets? One can only hope that the trauma and bitterness that is bound to follow will be contained within established channels and that we will find a way to craft a solution to the crisis,� he said.

The Elections and Boundaries Commission estimated voter turnout of at least 60 percent of the country�s 850,000 registered electors. The polls themselves provided controversy when a two-hour power failure prevented the commission from responding to complaints that voters� names had been dropped from the electoral register.