UNC PRO tells PM: Call fresh elections

RATHER than seek to unconstitutionally dissolve the deadlocked Tobago House of Assembly (THA), the Prime Minister should dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections now.

PRO of the United National Congress (UNC) Dr Kirk Meighoo in making this call, accused Dr Rowley of spinning a “frenzied web of lies” after what he described as the exposé of TT’s failure to secure covid19 vaccines, particularly from India.

Meighoo said none of the explanations Dr Rowley advanced when he joined the Ministry of Health virtual news briefing on Monday added up or could withstand the simplest scrutiny.

“Like the singer Shaggy, caught in flagrante delicto, Keith Rowley once again bold-facedly declares, 'It wasn’t me' and expects the country to believe him.”

In a release, Meighoo said, “Trying to hide his nakedness, he falsely claimed Barbados was experiencing a covid emergency (even though they have a lower death rate than TT), that Dominica was also experiencing a similar emergency (even though they have zero covid deaths), that India was not giving out free vaccines to countries like TT, and that there was no way for TT to access any vaccines at this time.

“All of this is false."

In true Rowley fashion, he said, the PM “threw out wild, outrageous accusations in the mix – often with racist undertones – accusing India of selling vaccines to Uganda at outrageously inflated prices, accusing members of the Trinidad medical fraternity – his own fellow citizens – of engaging in price-gouging, fraud, and other unethical practices...implying that India may be selling us fake vaccines, and other lies – without a shred of proof – meant only to distract from his government’s gross incompetence.”

Meighoo said government has paid both Covax and the African Union for vaccines, without any assurance of arrival time.

“This is sheer incompetence, while other Caricom governments have secured 670,000 vaccine doses not only from India, but indicative allocations of 357,600 doses from the Covax facility as well.

He said the people of Trinidad and Tobago "have had enough of Rowley, his lies, and his incompetence." The defeats of the PNM in local government by-elections in Trinidad and the THA elections confirmed this, he argued.

He said the Rowley Government has proven a complete failure and disaster for this country in the protection of women, safety and security, the protection of the treasury and Heritage and Stabilisation Fund, the performance of the economy, covid19 vaccine procurement, and “our heartlessly and unconstitutionally locked out resident citizens.

Under Rowley’s "failed leadership," he said, TT is "in complete freefall, and we don’t know where it will end.

“We cannot tolerate this brazenly lying, incompetent regime any longer.”