At the end of a press conference in Tobago on Friday afternoon, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley disclosed that he would not be offering himself as a candidate in the upcoming general election.
Also, he said he would resign before the general election, constitutionally due before the end of the year, is called.
The prime minister said his first job on the public payroll was to plant grass on the Hope Estate in Tobago at seven dollars a day, and then he taught school before entering the political arena in 1980.
“This year would be 45 years that I have been in public life in Trinidad and Tobago I offered myself for serve in Tobago in 1981 and in Trinidad in 1987, to now. And at the last election, 2020, when I announced the PNM victory in Baliser House, I said to this country, I will not be doing that again. And I meant it. And I’ve kept it.”
He said that he brought into the political area a number of young people who are still in government and about to complete a second term.
He said these people were now prepared to take the country forward.
Rowley said he would be at the PNM’s Parliamentary retreat this weekend.
“I am here with my colleagues this weekend and one of the things that they would be told is that I would not be offering myself again to represent anyone either in Trinidad or in Tobago. Forty-five years is a long time and I would like at this time to say thank you, appropriately along the way to all those who have supported my effort and to have benefited from, I hope I would have positively impacted this country somewhere, sometime,”.
He continued, “As we settle Tobago’s screening tomorrow, I continue to be the political leader of the PNM. We will call for nominations where I represent the people of Diego Martin West who have supported me resolutely from 1991 to now and I will thank them appropriately and ensure that they are not left adrift but I would not be offering myself as I have just said. And I would say something else before the end of the legal limits of this term I will resign this office and go off to my family. Thank you all very much and see you all again sometime soon.”
The Prime Minister walked away and entertained no questions after his statement about his retirement.
Rowley has served as Prime Minister for two consecutive terms since winning the general election in 2015.
He said of the country “I could see a deterioration of the quality of the society fuelled by the availability of the mechanism to spread your bile, the absence of certain kinds of civilities, and of course, more me than us”. (Trinidad Express)
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