Senior Reporter
jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt
Constituents of Diego Martin West have been grappling with mixed emotions after their MP, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, signalled that his political race could be nearing its end.
While some contended that the Prime Minister’s political journey is far from finished, others are already looking ahead to what their next representative should bring to the table.
During the budget debate in Parliament last Thursday, Rowley hinted that he could be completing his political course.
“I don’t know how much longer I would have in this Parliament. But I have done my duty, and I kept the course. I have run the race, and I look forward not for a pot of gold but for my family at the end of this rainbow,” he said then.
Yesterday, Guardian Media visited the PM’s constituency. According to the Elections and Boundaries Commission, Diego Martin West has an electorate of approximately 30,000. The constituency has been held by Rowley for over 30 years. In 1991 he wrestled it away from the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR).
Residents like Ferdinand Celestine are convinced Rowley is here to stay.
“A deceased Morris Marshall bring him here, he fight the first election here when Morris Marshall bring him here and he won, since that they never beat him. You think they will put a duncy head bat here to win, you have to put somebody who grow up here to win.”
Celestine, who has spent all his life in the Diego Martin West constituency, said he knew his MP all too well.
“He not going no where, I am telling you. Watch and see, he will go after the election, he will stay till election win and then go afterwards, but he not going anywhere before elections.”
Another resident George Gemott, 88, said that while the Prime Minister’s cards remained close to his chest, his MP has not shied away from showing his hand in the past.
“I find he’s alright, he may have his ways but he’s alright. He would come here and play a little all fours with we and make a little joke and he would go.”
Gemott said he has not given much thought to who should replace Rowley. However, 23-year-old Amartis Jawahir zeroed in on what she was looking for in an MP. “What I would look forward for from them is probably having a solution for the crime. That really needs to be addressed.”
But Andrew Lewis believes if Rowley stepped down it could mark a changing of the guard.
“It have plenty good youths around but I can’t say who would be best because everybody have their way of doing their thing, na.”
Constituents who spoke, but asked not to be identified, said the implications of Rowley’s possible retirement could set the stage for a pivotal moment in the PNM’s political history especially as a general election looms, one they believe will shape the future of Diego Martin West.