One week before its scheduled date, the Leaders’ Debates between Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley that was being organised by the T&T Debates Commission (TTDC) is still in a deadlock.
“The Leaders’ Debates for the 2015 general election have now reached an impasse because of misinformation,” a release from the TTDC said yesterday. They were planned for August 20 and 27.
TTDC project manager, Lorraine O’Connor, contacted for elaboration on that, declined to say the debate was definitely off, adding they were still hoping good sense will prevail.
O’Connor had earlier said if the PM declined the TTDC’s invitation to participate in its August debates, they had contingency plans in place.
Yesterday she said a leaders’ debate could not go on without two leaders.
“A leaders’ debate is not one person sitting down and answering questions. It’s a squaring off between two or three political parties.”
The debates deadlock comes after the Prime Minister recently told the media she would not participate in the TTDC’s debates because she was certain she would not be treated fairly and accused the organisation of leaking confidential information to the media.
The PM, implying bias, quoted radio show host Isha Wells who said the Syrians were PNM financiers. The chairman of the TTDC is Andrew Sabga.
The TTDC yesterday said its commissioners were committed to political neutrality and were not aligned financially or otherwise to any political party or parties.
“The TTDC has worked relentlessly to ensure the process we facilitate will allow all participants to get a fair hearing, as was evidenced in the three previous debates we held in which all major political parties participated,” it added.
The TTDC also rejected any accusation of improper behaviour by its commissioners and staff involved in the planning and execution of the debates.
“We all operate within a code of conduct to maintain confidentiality and neutrality. We wish to state categorically that no one from the TTDC leaked any confidential information to the media,” it said.
The TTDC was responding to charges by attorney Larry Lalla, debate negotiator for the PM, that a list of pre-debate requests made to the TTDC was leaked to the media.
The list, which was aired in the media, said the Prime Minister wanted a special chair to sit on during the debate and a background to match her wardrobe, among other things.
Defending its position on the staging of debates, the TTDC said the voting public was entitled to hear from the political leaders about matters that would determine their quality of life and children’s future.
“Debates are an effective way to do this as seen by the growing trend of over 60 developed and developing democratic countries worldwide, including our Caribbean neighbours, which have held such debates,” it added.