Just over two weeks after a request was made for election observers from CARICOM and the Commonwealth to arrive in this country for the August 10th general election, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has said they may not arrive in time to fulfill their duties.

During a virtual meeting broadcast on Friday, the Prime Minister said the Commonwealth delegation indicated that they may not be able to make the trip due to cost.

He said there’s still possibility that CARICOM observers may make it- however they would have to arrive on Sunday (July 26) in order to fulfill their two week quarantine in time for the election. 

In a response on Sunday morning, the United National Congress leader accused the Prime Minister of misleading the public as it relates to the Commonwealth delegation. 

See the Opposition Leader’s official release below: 

Political Leader of the United National Congress Kamla Persad Bissessar, SC is accusing the Prime Minister of trying to mislead the public on the ability of Commonwealth Observers to monitor the 2020 General Election in Trinidad and Tobago.

On July 8th, 2020 the Prime Minister announced via his Facebook page that he wrote to Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Rocque and Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland, QC, formally inviting them to send election observers to T&T.  

On Friday 24th July, after Mrs Persad-Bissessar questioned the status of international election observers, and during a virtual “lime” the Prime Minister indicated that the Commonwealth had replied saying “they didn’t think they would be able to come because of the cost”. 

Dr Rowley is once again trying to mislead the population.  The Prime Minister is well aware that revised guidelines for Commonwealth election observation^[1] were agreed to and released at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2018, which he attended.

During that meeting of CHOGM, it was stated that the new guidelines “adopt best practice, as also reflected in the Declaration of Principles on International Election Observation, and will ensure the on-going integrity, value and impact of Commonwealth observer missions as they continue to support the strengthening of electoral democracy and the political rights of Commonwealth citizens.”

Section 8.2 of these guidelines states:

“The costs of each observer mission are covered by the Secretariat. No funds are sought from the host member country being observed…”

Rowley’s actions can now be viewed as an attempt to not only stall the process so that Observer teams would not have enough time to enter the country and undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine, but a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the population mere days before the election, and avoid scrutiny.

As said previously, International Observers have in the past, played an important role in Trinidad and Tobago’s elections. In the 2007 and 2010 elections, we received observers from the Commonwealth and Caricom, while the 2015 election was observed by the Commonwealth at my request.

We have seen the pivotal role International Observers played in the recent elections in Guyana and we can agree that without them, their elections would have not reflected the true will of the people. Likewise, we have always had a long tradition of International Elections Observers present in Trinidad and Tobago and as such they must be present.

Keith Rowley must take full responsibility if International Observers are unable to arrive here in time to ensure proper scrutiny of the election process.

I am calling on the Prime Minister to act immediately to put the necessary arrangements in place so we will not be left without Observer teams for the first time in our recent electoral history. 

Let us continue to do all we can to ensure our tradition of free and fair elections in Trinidad and Tobago is upheld while protecting the health and wellbeing of our nation.