Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les says the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is pre­pared to or­gan­ise its own In­de­pen­dence cel­e­bra­tions if Gov­ern­ment can­cels the na­tion­al In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade for a sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year, ar­gu­ing that the an­nu­al event is too im­por­tant to the coun­try's his­to­ry and iden­ti­ty to be aban­doned.

Speak­ing at a PNM pub­lic meet­ing in Laven­tille on Thurs­day night, Beck­les ex­pressed scep­ti­cism that the Au­gust 31 pa­rade would pro­ceed this year, not­ing that prepa­ra­tions nor­mal­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with the event ap­pear ab­sent.

"This is the sec­ond year. If you go to the Sa­van­nah, you will see that the North Stand is still up. They have not been prac­tis­ing for any pa­rade," Beck­les told sup­port­ers.