Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has described as “a total fabrication” a newspaper report which suggests that he met with the Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, (THA), Kelvin Charles amidst the political turmoil within the Tobago  Island Council of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM).

Further, a news release from the Office of the Prime Minister on Tuesday morning states that the prime minister did not have a conversation with Mr Charles ( at right in photo) and so did not offer him an “Ambassadorship,” as a  report in the Trinidad Guardian suggested.

As it stands, eight of the ten PNM members in the assembly have already signed a petition for a  motion of no confidence in Charles to be debated in the THA on Friday.

This after Tracey Davidson Celestine returned from abroad where she served as T&T’s Ambassador to Costa Rica and contested the PNM’s internal elections for an executive of the Tobago Council, which she won, after a runoff.

The decision to bring the motion of no confidence is described as a move to forcefully remove Charles from his post as Chief Secretary, who, after losing the elections for the post of Political leader of the Tobago Island Council, refused to resign.

There is no indication yet, of who will replace  Charles because Davidson-Celestine cannot qualify because she is not an elected member of   THA.

The THA elections are due in 2021 but the PNM is preparing for the 2020 General Elections where the two Tobago seats, that will not be contested by the opposition United National Congress,  should be easy to retain.

The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, under Watson Duke who is the Minority Leader in the THA, will be the main opposition to the PNM in both the General and the THA elections.