Rowley says PNM must admit mistakes or face revolt at polls

Keith Rowley believes that unless the People's National Movement (PNM) admits that it made mistakes and assures the country that it would hold wrongdoers accountable, people will vote against the party in the May 24 general election.

Speaking in an interview on national television the PNM candidate for Diego Martin West said it is important for the PNM to identify who made the mistakes and convince voters that the mistakes would not be repeated.

"Otherwise, on polling day people are going to vote against us because they would be afraid of more of the same," he stated.

"We all know now what the situation is at UDeCOTT. If we have people in denial, they would find out that that is not a good thing to be in at this point in time," he added.

Rowley said the "PNM can stand proud for a lot of what it did in this country" and suggested that people should not take an "extremist position" in condemning the party.

But he added, "I can defend the PNM every day of the week, but I would not defend wrongdoing."

The former cabinet minister was fired for raising concerns about UDeCOTT and Calder Hart, who was executive chairman of UDeCOTT at the time.

He insisted that what he did was the proper thing and that the report of the Uff inquiry into UDeCOTT and the construction sector proved that he was right.

He said there is no reason why the PNM should have dropped him from politics. He said he did his job effectively, got Calder Hart out of UDeCOTT and got the cabinet and the Prime Minister to focus on UDeCOTT.

He said it would have been unfair for him "to pay a price for what I have done right."

Rowley suggested that others have have done wrong should be changing their positions and stated that the PNM would never be the same again after UDeCOTT.

"I am sure that on reflection there are many people in my organisation, even in the Government, who would think that maybe, they should not have taken the position they took," he said.