(Trinidad Guardian) After 40 years in politics, Patrick Manning, the man who served this country as Prime Minister four times, yesterday announced that he will bowing out of politics for good at the end of this parliamentary term. At a news conference at his San Fernando East Constituency office, Manning said he has already told his constituents to look for his successor. He also spoke for the first time about leading his party to defeat in the 2010 election and how he was chased and booed out of Balisier House at a meeting of the PNM general council, three days after their defeat at the polls. Three days after the historic election of Kamla Persad-Bissessar as the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, that Manning addressed a special general council meeting and offered his resignation as political leader with immediate effect.
The situation was electric, as Manning had led the party to defeat just two and a half years into its five year term. He admitted that he left the general council prematurely to avoid being asked to leave, but when he went downstairs of Balisier House, he was confronted by a barrage of red shirt supporters who had turned their fury on him for the party’s loss. “There were those who felt I should not have left in peace and I should have effectively been run out. I effectively left Balisier House in circumstances that were far less than honourable.” Manning said he wanted to cast no aspersions admitting: “such are the vicissitudes of political life.”
