THE Prime Minister has called on Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to “not stain the country” and withdraw the motion to remove President Paula-Mae Weekes from office.
His appeal came less than 48 hours before the Electoral College meets on Thursday to vote on the motion.
At a virtual PNM meeting, streamed live from the San Fernando city hall auditorium on Tuesday evening, Dr Rowley said the convening of the Electoral College, which is made up of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, has caused the postponement of the government’s weekly Cabinet meeting. However, he said he would be leading his MPs and senators to the Parliament to vote.
“The Opposition Leader and the imps, pimps and chimps, all of them think they coming to debate and scandalise the President. They don’t even know the law.
“The law makes no provision for any debates on the conduct of the President,” he said, pointing out that they are just going there to vote.”
Directing his attention to Persad-Bissessar, Rowley said: “I want to say to Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar, you are a colleague of mine in the Parliament. Even if you thought something had gone wrong, enough has been made available to you now and there is provision for the withdrawal of a motion in the Parliament, if the mover of a motion is of a changed view and would like to withdraw that motion.
“I would like to ask the Leader of the Opposition tonight, based on what she now knows, based on what this country now knows, notwithstanding your concern or malice in the beginning, don’t put our country through that.
“Don’t put that on our country’s record. Don’t stain our country. Withdraw this motion.”
His request came after he outlined several perceived transgressions of the Government she led between 2010 to 2015, to underscore the point that she was no standard bearer of high values to make demands for the President’s removal.
Rowley also answered nine questions Persad-Bissessar posed after statements made by both him and Weekes over the weekend about the collapse of the Police Service Commission (PSC) and issues surrounding the merit list of candidates for the Commissioner of Police (CoP) position.
[caption id="attachment_919971" align="alignnone" width="1024"] File photo: Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.[/caption]
“Tonight, I want to answer all nine questions and then you should tell me whether we should spend Thursday morning in the Parliament to go and try to remove the President from office.
“Concern number one. ‘When specifically did Rowley,’ that is me, ‘advise the PSC that he had lost faith in the Commissioner of Police?
“Answer – sometime last year.”
“‘What caused his loss of faith?’ His good judgement and understanding.”
“‘Did he only write the chairman or all members of the commission?’
“I wrote the chairman under the understanding that she was chairing a commission and if I wrote the chairman I, in effect, wrote the commission.
