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Trinidad PM Denies Offering Defeated Candidate Ambassadorial Post

Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley. Photo credit: CMC.

Trinidad PM Denies Offering Defeated Candidate Ambassadorial Post

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, February 4, 2020 (CMC) – Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley, has described as “total fabrication”, that he had offered a diplomatic post to the Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Kelvin Charles, who lost the leadership of the Tobago Council of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), last week.

Rowley said that the media reports that he had also met with Charles, who is facing pressure to step down as THA Chief Secretary, were also unfounded, and that “no such meeting ever took place, nor was there any conversation of that nature and no offer was made to Mr. Charles”.

“These stories are total fabrications, since no such meeting ever took place,” he said.

Media reports said that the meeting took place, on Tuesday, and that while neither party had issued any statement on the outcome, “Charles was offered an ambassadorship and also an option to take up a position as a Secretary in the THA”.

The Trinidad Guardian newspaper reported, Tuesday, that last Saturday, eight members of the THA had started talks to petition the THA’s Presiding Officer, Vanessa Cutting-Thomas, to hold a special sitting of the Assembly, on Friday, where a vote of no-confidence will be moved against Charles.

The new Tobago Council political leader, Tracy Davidson-Celestine, who is also Trinidad and Tobago’s Ambassador to Costa Rica, defeated Charles in a run-off for the top post of the PNM in Tobago, and had called on him to step down as a result.

Charles has refused to do so and has also called for Deputy Chief Secretary, Joel Jack, to do the honourable thing, after unsuccessfully challenging him for the post.

In 2016, Charles defeated Davidson-Celestine in the PNM internal election.

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