Trinidadian Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said that during Guyana’s election impasse in March 2020, he had cautioned President David Granger that if he had lost the polls he should lose it with dignity otherwise there would be consequences for him and his party.
Rowley who had famously said on April 4, 2020 that he feared that things were not going to end well with the elections broke his silence on aspects of that period at a press conference on Saturday in Port of Spain.
“I went to Guyana that morning (to mediate the impasse) and I can say, contrary to what the UNC (United National Congress) and the people are trying to stoke in this country, there was one thing I said to my colleague who was the president: That is, if you have lost this election lose it with dignity. There will be another chance. But if there is no dignity in this defeat, the next time, you and your party will be of no use to your country,” Rowley told the press conference.
After an agreement was reached between Granger and then PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo for the recount of the 2020 Elections ballots with supervision from CARICOM, an APNU+AFC candidate took to the court saying that it would be illegal.
This prompted Rowley to pull his country’s Chief Election Officer, Fern Narcis-Scope from returning to be a part of the CARICOM scrutineer team as he said he found the coalition’s stance disturbing.
“It was my view and the view of this Government that being the outcome of that altruistic approach, that the Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago ought not to be in that situation at any time to be accused in that way, in a CARICOM country,” Rowley had explained to his country’s Parliament.
“So we did not send back our Election Officer there because we want to preserve our pristine position in these matters of the conduct of free and fair elections,” he added.
He has never publicly given his views on the issue but on Saturday said that he was forced to address it because he believes that Trinidad and Tobago’s opposition UNC was trying to sow discord between his government and the Irfaan Ali government. In addition, he singled out UNC parliamentarian Rodney Charles who Rowley says has been pushing the view that he holds “some friendliness with the (former) president (Granger)”.
“I want to say something to the people of Guyana and the people of Trinidad and Tobago…I act respectfully and cooperatively with every Caricom head. Every one of them I regard as my colleague. I chaired Caricom and some of the most far-reaching consequences had to be dealt with during my stewardship,” he said.
“[he is] talking to me about being friendly with Granger and wanting to associate me with the politics in Guyana? Unlike some of them, we are not interfering in the politics of any country. I came back here from a long tiring trip to Ghana. I got into bed at 2 am and joined my colleague from Barbados and we went to Guyana and we spent three days in Guyana, seeking to part the population that was going at each other’s throats around an election result,” Rowley added.
In an April 4th 2020 interview with journalist Elizabeth Williams in Trinidad, Rowley had said about the Guyana situation: “I am getting a feeling that this is not going to end well…I hope I am wrong but that feeling…I am not having a good feeling…I have this unsettling feeling [that grows] with every passing day”.
Debate over Guyana and Trinidad relations is trending in the region following Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo use of the twin-island republic as an example of a state that relied heavily on the oil and gas sector instead of diversifying its economy and the economic setbacks it faced as a result.
Of Jagdeo’s statement, Rowley said he would not be distracted by it as many persons have spoken “bad” of the country but the others which praise it far outweigh the negative.
“There are a lot of people in Guyana, and I am not really distracted by Vice President Jagdeo’s comments about us. A lot of people comment about us, some favourably and some not. We will not be distracted by that,” he said.
And like Rowley, President Irfaan Ali said Jagdeo’s views are no way subliminal endorsements of the UNC and its leader Kamla Persaud-Bissessar.
“I’m dealing with straight language, straight language. I’m not interpreting language; straight language. There was no pitch for any opposition or government,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an outreach in Berbice yesterday.
“We value every single one of our regional partners and we’re going to work with every one of them,” Ali said.
