Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley renewed his call to citizens to forget distractions on national issues and focus on local government reform when they go to the polls on Monday.
He made the call in his last public address before the eagerly anticipated and hotly contested election at a People’s National Movement (PNM) Rally at Constantine Park in Macoya, yesterday evening.
Rowley said: “All the nonsense and the rubbish they have been talking about, they are going to continue to talk on August 15 because it has no relevance on August 14.”
“They are going to continue to talk about this because these are general election issues and the next general election is in two years,” he added.
He took aim at the joint campaign pursued by the United National Congress (UNC) led by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the National Transformation Alliance led by former police commissioner and national security minister Gary Griffith over the crime scourge affecting the country.
“When they are calling on you to pick up the gun, we are calling on you to come out and take up the vote,” Rowley said.
Referring to comments made by Persad-Bissessar during the campaign, he said they should be viewed in the context that she as a former Prime Minister was once head of the National Security Council.
“When you hold that kind of office you cannot come out and be talking stupidness, dangerous stupidness, in the country,” he said.
“When gunman meet behind closed doors, away from the public eye, they giving instruction to their killers about ‘matic and how to knock and how to shoot and you come on a platform and telling our boys and girls about ‘matic and not ‘matic and how to shoot.
“Well when you come out on Monday, I want you to knock that mad lady out of the politics of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Rowley also took aim at several unnamed UNC candidates, who he said had unanswered corruption allegations against them and were seeking re-election.
He also raised concerns about the return to the UNC of former government minister Jack Warner who is currently battling possible extradition to the United States where he is wanted on corruption charges related to his protracted stint as a Fifa executive.
Rowley also took aim at “rehashed’ allegations from the UNC over his alleged failure to declare a townhouse he and his wife purchased in 2019 to the Integrity Commission on a form to which the public has access.
Rowley has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing as he noted that the Integrity in Public Life Act does not require public officials, subject to the purview of the commission, to declare property other than land on the public form.
“The biggest punch they have thrown is to slander me...I will sue every single one of you,” Rowley said, to the rapturous applause and cheers of the hundreds of supporters gathered for the rally.
Rowley referred directly to Opposition Senator Wade Mark and San Juan/Barataria MP Saddam Hosein, who called on the Integrity Commission to launch an investigation into the townhouse declaration which eventually resulted in no action being taken against him (Rowley).
“I don’t mind being slandered but I do mind being slandered by persons who have questions to answer...the most corrupt government in the history of T&T,” Rowley said.
Rowley noted that when his party succeeds in the election it would immediately move to begin to introduce local government reform measures that were not supported by the Opposition in Parliament.
“We offer you an upgrade and improvement in the quality of your life,” he said.
He compared the touted reform to other major past measures proposed and pursued by the PNM without Opposition support, such as free secondary school education.
“This is a different election. It is the one in which we take the quantum leap from the back years to the next generation,” Rowley said.
“Elections are important and results matter. Local government is important,” he added.