Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley will not en­ter­tain Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­quest for in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers to over­see the up­com­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

Dur­ing the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ Mon­day Night Re­port, Per­sad-Bisses­sar made the call for for­eign over­sight while un­der­scor­ing that her par­ty does not trust the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment with the process. She added that she had de­liv­ered a let­ter to the PM on this.

How­ev­er, while an­swer­ing ques­tions from the au­di­ence dur­ing Break­fast with tDr Kei­th Row­ley at the Hilton Trinidad, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Dr Row­ley re­spond­ed to her re­quest with a re­sound­ing no.

“We are go­ing in­to a lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion, we’ve had that over and over and over, and there’s one due in a few weeks. Some of our col­leagues are telling me I must in­vite for­eign­ers to come and ob­serve our lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion, no!” the Prime Min­is­ter said to laugh­ter from the crowd, which was made up of par­ty stal­warts and mem­bers of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.

The Prime Min­is­ter ques­tioned why Per­sad-Bisses­sar be­lieves such an in­ter­ven­tion is nec­es­sary.

“They free to come if they wish, it’s a free coun­try but why are we sell­ing our­selves short?”

Dr Row­ley said this coun­try has a rep­u­ta­tion of be­ing “su­per­stars” with elec­tions and that is why lo­cals go to oth­er coun­tries to ob­serve their elec­toral process­es.

“And you know why I am say­ing no to those trou­ble­mak­ers? It is be­cause our record in the PNM is with­out blem­ish. When we lost an elec­tion for the first time af­ter three decades, what did the PNM do? We walked away qui­et­ly to Bal­isi­er House and func­tioned in such a way in Op­po­si­tion that the pub­lic re-elect­ed us five years lat­er.”

He ref­er­enced the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup d’état to show that the PNM has al­ways re­spect­ed the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process.

“When they took up arms against us in this coun­try and burn down the Par­lia­ment and kill peo­ple and or­dered who should be Prime Min­is­ter, what was the PNM’s po­si­tion? I was in Wash­ing­ton, Patrick Man­ning was here in Trinidad, and he said we will have no part of any gov­ern­ment that comes to of­fice in that way, that is our record!”

The Prime Min­is­ter said he found it hyp­o­crit­i­cal that the UNC wants in­de­pen­dent for­eign ob­servers to mon­i­tor an elec­tion he claims they are try­ing to un­der­mine them­selves.

“We are not as a PNM go­ing to take that as par for the course in Trinidad and To­ba­go, we are go­ing to call it out and stand by our record.”