UML wrote:UML wrote:Wah bout the Debates Commission controversy?
Sabga, Father Harvey and other known pnm supporters in key positions
DC facilitating the date of the PNM over the PPG
A secret panel deciding on questions to be asked (why the secret is the panel from Balisier House?)
How are we to trust that the PNM is not given the questions in advance? Seeing the blatant bias in the DC
Debate mistake, storm in tea-cup
By Andre Bagoo
Saturday, July 18 2015
THE TRINIDAD and Tobago Debates Commission (TTDC) yesterday confirmed it had issued a letter to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s negotiating team stating that it was decided that a debate will take place on July 30, however this was done in “error”.
At the same time, the error was not made in representations by the Commission to the Opposition over the scheduling of the debate.
“There was an error in the wording of the letter,” said the TTDC chairman Andrew Sabga yesterday at a press conference held at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Westmoorings. “The letter that went out to the People’s Partnership (PP) said we had decided on 30th July. In the letter that went out to the PNM, it said that it was proposed, which was the right wording. There were many different issues that still needed to be handled prior to confirming any date in July. In fact, there was no consensus on that date. There was an error of wording which may have been misleading.” At the same time, he said the matter was a “storm in a tea-cup”.
Sabga did not say which officer had issued the letter or account for the discrepancy between the wording of the letters to the PP and the PNM. He said the error was only picked up by the Commission after the Prime Minister’s negotiating team went public with the date. He confirmed that the TTDC booked air-time for July 30 at CNMG, but said this was one of many provisional bookings.
While it entertained talks for a July debate, the TTDC chairman said it was now reverting to its “original criteria” which would see a debate take place in August. He said the July debate would have been separate from an August debate.
“We are going back to the original criteria that has been accepted by most of the participants,” Sabga said. “We are still hopeful that we will get all the players to the table. The door is not closed as far as we are concerned.”
Sabga said the Prime Minister’s negotiator, attorney Larry Lalla, had proposed the Mondays of the month of July as possible dates and the latest Monday, July 27 was initially identified, but shifted to July 30 given that the date is the anniversary of the 1990 terrorist attack on the Parliament and the media.
“We tried to secure consensus from the other side, who had already agreed to the August dates,” Sabga said. “It was very difficult to get us to get them to shift from those dates.”
At the same time, Sabga chided Lalla for making public the communication from the TTDC in which it was stated that July 30 had been decided.
“We realised that the error was made when Mr Lalla went public and announced the date, to our horror,” the chairman said. “In our discussion with all parties we have kindly asked them to kindly keep the negotiations that we are having with them out of the public eye until things are finalised and settled. How the July 30 date got derailed is because one party went public before it was decided.”
Sabga continued, “Whether rightly or wrongly so, whether there was an indication or belief that it was decided rightly or not, the fact that it went public before it was secured created a lot of anxiety. We need to appreciate that the stakes are very high. This is a very heightened and heated election.” The members of the TTDC are: Sabga (chairman); Ronald Harford; Fr Clyde Harvey; Moonilal Lalchan; Kiran Maharaj; Angella Persad and Professor Rhoda Reddock. The project manager is Lorraine O’Connor.
Lalla yesterday evening said all faith in the Commission was now lost.
“Unfortunately, we have lost faith in the so-called Debates Commission,” he said in a media release. “Are they really so careless that they don’t double check the correspondence which they send to the representative of a political leader on such an important matter? If their explanation is true that they wrote to the me and stated that the 30th July date had been “decided” but wrote separately to the PNM and said the date was only “proposed” then it brings their impartiality into serious question.”
Lalla further stated, “I regret their false claim that the notion of a 30th July debate originated with the People’s Partnership. The record in the public domain shows that such date originated with their email which stated a decision had been taken to hold a debate on that date.”
The attorney further said, “I regret too their demonstrably false claim that in some way I broke an agreement of confidentiality. To so state is offensive and wrong. I gave no undertaking to keep the date confidential. In any event, if the date was meant to be kept from the public, Ms O’Connor’s email to me would have said so. It did not.”
Sabga said the TTDC will not step aside and a debate will take place once two or more persons participate.
Reddock said the estimated $1.5 million cost for the debate is in order to produce a “quality debate” and covers costs such as advertising, live TV production, venue rentals, air-time costs, communications, administration, secretariat and support staff costs. The proposed debate would see a secret panel of four choose questions. Questions sent by the public to the leaders would be shifted by this secret panel.
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,214300.htmlDC "storm in a tea cup comment" very similar to Rowley’s and highlights their PNM arrogance and bias!!!
