Richard Lord

For­mer Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning's de­ci­sion to dis­solve Par­lia­ment at this time would have been in­flu­enced by the re­port of the Uff Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the Con­struc­tion Sec­tor and the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T (Ude­cott). He said that when ques­tioned for com­ment on the lat­est de­vel­op­ment yes­ter­day. The re­port was crit­i­cal of Ude­cott. Row­ley said he was fired as min­is­ter be­cause he de­mand­ed Cab­i­net over­sight for the state-owned spe­cial pur­pos­es com­pa­ny.

He said the im­mi­nent elec­tions would be the "Ude­cott elec­tion." Asked if he felt Par­lia­ment was dis­solved to pre-empt the sched­uled de­bate on Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's mo­tion of no con­fi­dence in Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, Row­ley was sure the is­sues to be raised in that de­bate would now take place on po­lit­i­cal plat­forms. He could not see an elec­tion be­ing held in T&T with­out is­sues, such as gov­er­nance and oth­ers, fea­tur­ing.

He said the call­ing of an elec­tion was al­ways a good thing. Asked if he felt the PNM would win the up­com­ing polls, Row­ley said he "hopes so." Asked if he could work un­der Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning in a fu­ture Gov­ern­ment, Row­ley said: "I can work with any­body." Told of his crit­i­cisms of the Prime Min­is­ter in re­cent months Row­ley said he con­tin­ued to ad­here to cer­tain prin­ci­ples but could work and re­spect any­body. Row­ley was nom­i­nat­ed by all par­ty groups in his Diego Mar­tin West con­stituen­cy and is ex­pect­ed to be screened as a prospec­tive can­di­date for the seat.