Fol­low­ing is the full state­ment is­sued by TT De­bates Com­mis­sion on Tues­day's Lead­ers' De­bate:

The Lead­ers' de­bate is now doubt­ful.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go De­bates Com­mis­sion (TTDC), an in­de­pen­dent NGO, has in­vit­ed the Lead­ers of the po­lit­i­cal par­ties/coali­tion con­test­ing the 2013 Trinidad and To­ba­go Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions to par­tic­i­pate in: "2013 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions De­bates". The Lead­ers' De­bate is card­ed for live air­ing at 8pm on tele­vi­sion and ra­dio on Tues­day 15 Oc­to­ber 2013 with the theme Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form.

With re­spect to re­cent an­nounce­ments by po­lit­i­cal or­gan­i­sa­tions, we ad­vise that an al­ter­na­tive for any of the Lead­ers in­vit­ed is not an op­tion. We there­fore re­spect­ful­ly re­ject any al­ter­na­tives be­ing of­fered. Our agree­ment with the Lead­ers of the var­i­ous po­lit­i­cal or­gan­i­sa­tions in­vit­ed and with the pub­lic man­dates that on­ly Lead­ers par­tic­i­pate at the Lead­ers' De­bate on Tues­day 15th Oc­to­ber.

Mr David Ab­du­lah of the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice has con­firmed his at­ten­dance. Dr. Row­ley of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment has in­di­cat­ed that he will par­tic­i­pate if Mrs. Per­sad-Bisses­sar's ab­sence is du­ly not­ed and Mr. Warn­er of the In­de­pen­dent Lib­er­al Par­ty is al­so present. Mr Warn­er has in­sist­ed that he will not de­bate with­out Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

The TTDC leaves open its in­vi­ta­tion to Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­con­sid­er her po­si­tion and join the oth­ers on the de­bate night. We hope al­so that Mr Warn­er will see the im­por­tance of de­bat­ing and par­tic­i­pate with or with­out the leader of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship.

If af­ter con­tin­ued, con­cert­ed ef­forts to se­cure Lead­ers' par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Lead­ers' De­bate on Thurs­day 15th Oc­to­ber, the TTDC will be forced to can­cel the Lead­ers' De­bate.