President of the T&T Chamber of Commerce Robert Trestrail has defended the T&T Debates Commission against claims of bias made by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Trestrail in a statement yesterday renewed his call for Persad-Bissessar and Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley to participate in the leaders’ debates being organised by the TTDC later this month.
Trestrail’s defence of TTDC came after Persad-Bissessar said on Friday she would not participate in any debate organised by that entity. She quoted radio show host Isha Wells who said the Syrians were the financiers of the PNM to support her stance.
Andrew Sabga, is chairman of the TTDC. The PM said she was certain the debate would not be fair to her.
Trestrail, in a media release yesterday, said: “I have remained decidedly quiet on the issue of the Leaders’ Debates, hoping that good conscience would prevail.
“It is also my understanding that debates commissions the world over often encounter similar challenges in attempting to establish a culture of electoral debating.
“I now find it necessary to comment on recent developments and have noted statements by both Mr Larry Lalla and the Prime Minster, in respect of a perceived bias on the part of the members of the TTDC.
“The T&T Chamber does not support these views and deems the developments most unfortunate.
“As president, I have full confidence in the members of the TTDC, some of whom are members and officers of the T&T Chamber and are independently-minded citizens of T&T.” The TTDC is a creation of the T&T Chamber.
Trestrail renewed his call for the leaders to participate in the debates which have been scheduled for August 17 and 20.
He said at this time it was unclear who would form the next government or who would be the next Prime Minister.
“The economic uncertainty that T&T faces further reinforces the need for the potential prime ministerial candidates to make themselves available for public debates,” he added.
The Prime Minister at first had agreed to a debate on July 30 but Rowley insisted that the debate could only go ahead after Nomination Day (August 17) as had been proposed by the TTDC. The TTDC subsequently admitted that the July 30 date was due to an administrative error.
The PM went ahead and appeared on a separate programme aired on Caribbean New Media Group on July 30, where she was interviewed by a panel comprising Wells, former government minister Dr Morgan Job and political analyst Derek Ramsamooj.
Rowley did not respond to invitations to attend and Persad-Bissessar alone fielded questions from three interviewers.
The TTDC said earlier if the PM did not participate in its August debates it had contingency plans in place but declined to give details.
Trestrail said the TTDC has admitted it was an unfortunate administrative error regarding the date for the debate in the correspondence to the two main parties.
“The T&T Chamber suggests that all stakeholders accept that a genuine error was made and move forward for the betterment of our electoral process and the benefit of the people of T&T,” he added.