RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Hard times are ahead for the next two years.

This was the de­c­la­ra­tion from Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley last night as the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment se­cured a 22-19 seat vic­to­ry over the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress in the 2020 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Just af­ter 10.30 pm, Row­ley ad­dressed a small gath­er­ing at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain de­clar­ing vic­to­ry in the pan­dem­ic-hit elec­tion and giv­ing his vic­to­ry speech, in which he promised to do his best to lead T&T out of the cur­rent dif­fi­cult and try­ing eco­nom­ic times. 

“Tonight, the PNM has won the gen­er­al elec­tions. Tonight, against all odds in a most dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion, the PNM has been called to ser­vice in the gov­ern­ment of T&T for a sec­ond time,” Row­ley said proud­ly.

Say­ing the jour­ney was dif­fi­cult, Row­ley said the PNM had steered the course and de­spite the ad­ver­si­ty, “the peo­ple of T&T had done the right thing.”

He said the PNM had lost many votes from se­nior cit­i­zens who could not come out to vote be­cause of COVID-19.

“In a pan­dem­ic, a num­ber of se­nior cit­i­zens didn’t par­tic­i­pate, the young peo­ple came to the fore and this vic­to­ry is large­ly the in­volve­ment of youths,” Row­ley said.

“The fu­ture in T&T is bright. We have dif­fi­cult days ahead but as dark show­ers will bring thun­der and light­ning, af­ter that there is bright sun­shine. The pas­sage of the storm is to sur­vive and then en­joy the good weath­er,” he said.

Map Showing 2020 General Elections Results-01

But he warned, “The next two years will be very dif­fi­cult but dur­ing that pe­ri­od we are re­quired to do things to be in a bet­ter po­si­tion to en­joy a brighter fu­ture. Elec­tions tonight are over and to­mor­row the elec­tions are be­hind us. Let’s be one peo­ple to­geth­er, work­ing to­geth­er. In this pe­ri­od, let’s put aside per­son­al slights, per­son­al wants and look at the na­tion­al needs, es­pe­cial­ly those who can’t look af­ter them­selves.”

He added, “The gov­ern­ment will play a role and build an econ­o­my in such a way that all of us are lift­ed by the ris­ing tide and say moth­er Trinidad has been good.”

He said all the mea­sures that the PNM planned will be ex­e­cut­ed.

“I will re­turn to of­fice in White­hall as the Prime Min­is­ter of T&T. We con­test­ed hard,” he said.
The Prime Min­is­ter urged the coun­try to make changes in the short term which will bring ben­e­fits lat­er on.

“We have made com­mit­ments and we will car­ry out the com­mit­ments and we have a man­date and by God we will do what we said we will do,” he vowed.

He al­so hint­ed that the next five years will be his last term in po­lit­i­cal of­fice. He smiled coy­ly and hugged his wife Sharon as he de­clared his in­ten­tion.

Row­ley said he planned to hand the man­tle to young politi­cians whom he has been men­tor­ing.

“To all can­di­dates who have not won a seat, you are win­ners, your par­ty has won the gen­er­al elec­tions. We will pro­vide sta­ble and sober lead­er­ship,” he said.

A PNM supporter celebrates her party’s victory at Balisier House last night.

KERWIN PEIRRE

With the elec­tion over, Row­ley urged the coun­try to “go back to be­ing one peo­ple.” He said the pri­or­i­ty now must be to en­sure that no one is left be­hind and that those least able to take care of them­selves must be looked af­ter.

He vowed to dig­i­tize the coun­try and ex­pand the econ­o­my in agri­cul­ture af­ter he picks his Cab­i­net this week.

Dr Row­ley al­so paid trib­ute to his wife Sharon as well as the PNM’s pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Lau­ra Leza­ma-Lee Singh.

He al­so said he was pleased that COVID-19 pro­to­cols were ad­hered to.

Al­though the PNM de­clared vic­to­ry, the po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­fused to con­cede de­feat. In­stead, Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced that the UNC will be ask­ing for re­counts in mar­gin­al ar­eas.

“We fought a good fight. How­ev­er, tonight I am not giv­ing a con­ces­sion­ary speech. I am not con­ced­ing. Our can­di­dates in sev­er­al mar­gin­als are fil­ing for re­counts and on­ly then we can con­cede. Go brave, we fought a good fight and we will con­tin­ue to go and fight,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She added, “I am some­what sur­prised by the re­sults. The fights are not over un­til the re­counts are done. Our par­ty did very well, we could have done bet­ter. We fought a clean fight. It’s not over. There will be re­counts.”

She con­grat­u­lat­ed the UNC Moru­ga/Table­land can­di­date Michelle Ben­jamin and Princes Town can­di­date Bar­ry Padarath who won their seats.