By: Capil Bissoon
June 20, 2023
On August 14, use your vote, even though it is a LG Election, to send Rowley and the PNM a very direct message… If this Administration is to be judged on its performance, then I posit the electorate should send a clear signal that they are not happy with its governance and use this opportunity as a referendum!
The 2023 Local Government Election will be held on Monday August 14 across all 141 electoral districts in Trinidad’s 14 municipal corporation electoral areas.
And while this is LG Elections, it will be the first time since the 2020 General Elections that will afford citizens the opportunity to rate/grade the performance of the Keith Rowley-led PNM Government.
What has this Government done in the last 3 years of its second mandate that can be used as a yardstick to evaluate whether or not it is worth casting a vote in favor of the PNM?
If this Administration is to be judged on its performance, then I posit the electorate should send a clear signal that they are not happy with its governance and use this opportunity as a referendum.
As Rowley began his party’s LG campaign for re-election, he continues with his lies and blame game.
What will they campaigned on for this election; will it be local government reform after they were admonished by the Privy Council for extending the term of local government representatives by a year which the PC ruled unlawful?
What can the PNM campaign on?
It has been almost 8 years of crisis after crisis and scandal after scandal.
After almost eight years, the Judiciary is in crisis.
After almost eight years, over 55000 workers have become unemployed.
After almost eight years, crime is spiralling out-of-control. Records are being broken in terms of the number of murders that are taking place.
After almost eight years, citizens are crying out for leadership of good governance in the most important areas of economic management (regarding reduced revenues), social issues, health care services and delivery, education and infrastructure development.
After almost eight years, every day is getting worse because of the policy of denial by an inept and arrogant Rowley Administration, which has been very eloquent in demonstrating a continued political litany of mismanagement, corruption, incompetence, cronyism and nepotism and have literally destroyed the country during their time.
With social ills abound; the youths have lost hope as there has not been any type of programmes for their self-development.
The PNM used the COVID-19 Pandemic as a political problem and therefore a political opportunity to gain some much-needed political oxygen in 2020 but this pandemic is now behind us and the country still is reeling from the PNM’s lack of any type of plan to take us forward. How can anyone forget that during the pandemic, the Government literally authorised itself to increase its borrowing limits under the Development Loans Act by $10 Billion. This was in addition to the over $10 Billion withdrawals from the HSF.
As citizens prepare to vote in the upcoming Local Government Election, they should not forget that the Government has presided over the demise of the micro, small and medium sized enterprises all over the country to their mismanagement of the economy. All the sectors and areas from where new innovative ideas could emerge have been axed from the Government’s agenda.
PNM mismanagement is not a “one-off-thing”… is it a pattern.
Rowley has become the lead actor in “Honey, I shrunk the Energy Sector.” He unilaterally closed down PETROTRIN, TT’s prized jewel, which was the country’s main source of earning foreign exchange; now, TT is being forced to spend over US$250 million annually to import fuel we once produced!
The Energy Chamber has been criticizing the calculation of the supplemental petroleum tax and most of the companies in the Point Lisas Industrial Estate are against the model of natural gas pricing which has made TT a less attractive investment location.
For the past eight years, Rowley and his Administration have lost their moral compass and have been paralysed and impotent and simply put, do not have what it takes to provide good, responsible and visionary governance to T&T.
They will ask for your vote but they cannot give you a valid reason to put them in charge of local government.
The UNC has a record of planned performance; they have none. You have nothing to lose when you vote for the UNC candidate in your district.
On August 14, use your vote, even though it is a Local Government Election, to send Rowley and the PNM a very direct message… you are unhappy with their performance and management of the country!
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