Rowley comfortable as PNM leader but admits some PNM members don't accept him

Keith Rowley is not bothered by the support Patrick Manning has been getting from members of the party and he told reporters Monday he loses no sleep over it.

There have been suggestions that the former Prime Minister's walk from Port of Spain to San Fernando exposed a chasm within the ranks of the opposition People's National Movement (PNM).

However the PNM leader denied that there is any split. And he added: “I am quite comfortable in the position that I hold as leader of the PNM."

Rowley admitted Manning gets support from some PNM members, including former cabinet members, but said there is no rule against that. “If one looks at the PNM’s constitution you will find great difficulty in finding a clause that says that one should not gravitate around anybody.”

He aded, “Mr Manning has his friends, he has his family, he has his supporters and I don’t know if I want to deprive him of his support base...and if that support is what deals with the trauma, let the man have his treatment."


He also dismissed the significance of Manning's walk. “I don’t share the view of many people who think this a major development within the PNM.”

Rowley added, “Mr Manning may be a former leader of the PNM and a former prime minister but he is a current member of Parliament for San Fernando East. And if the San Fernando consistency and their MP choose to walk around Trinidad and Tobago, there is no law against that,” he said.

Rowley admitted that there are some people in his party who may have difficulty identifying with him as leader of the PNM. “I know that there are scribes and others who have a difficulty in figuring out who is their leader...we know who our leader is." 

Rowley said citizens should stop worrying about splits in the PNM and look the problems in the governing coalition.