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Friday, July 25, 2025

TTDC biased, negotiator says

by

20150718

The rift be­tween the T&T De­bates Com­mis­sion (TTDC) and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's ne­go­tia­tor Lar­ry Lal­la has widened, with Lal­la now ac­cus­ing the body of be­ing "bi­ased and in­com­pe­tent."

"If their ex­pla­na­tion is true, that they wrote to me and stat­ed the Ju­ly 30 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 said yes­ter­day.

"I ap­pre­ci­ate that they are in a dif­fi­cult po­si­tion, as there are on­ly two pos­si­ble ex­pla­na­tions of their re­ver­sal of their de­ci­sion of a 30 Ju­ly date.

"They are ei­ther in­com­pe­tent or bi­ased. Nei­ther ex­pla­na­tion re­flects well on them."

He added, "It is bizarre that they claim to be an in­de­pen­dent body and to be ne­go­ti­at­ing with de­bate par­tic­i­pants in good faith, but yet they are now ped­dling dates in late Au­gust.

"I have specif­i­cal­ly in­di­cat­ed to them that the Prime Min­is­ter is un­avail­able in Au­gust. This again se­ri­ous­ly ques­tions their im­par­tial­i­ty and cred­i­bil­i­ty."

Lal­la's strong charges came short­ly af­ter the TTDC held a news con­fer­ence yes­ter­day to clear the air on the con­fu­sion sur­round­ing the date for the "Great De­bate" it planned be­tween Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Not­ing that his in­tegri­ty was be­ing brought in­to ques­tion by the TTDC's ex­pla­na­tion, Lal­la said, "The TTDC can­not de­ny with any cred­i­bil­i­ty that they are the ones that fixed the Ju­ly 30 date. I have an email dat­ed Ju­ly 3 from Lo­raine O'Con­nor to so prove."

Lal­la of­fered a copy of the email as ev­i­dence.

He asked, "Are they re­al­ly so care­less that they don't dou­ble check the cor­re­spon­dence they send to the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of a po­lit­i­cal leader on such an im­por­tant mat­ter?

"I re­gret their false claim that the no­tion of a 30 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.

"I re­gret too their false claim that in some way I broke an agree­ment of con­fi­den­tial­i­ty. To so state is of­fen­sive and wrong."

Lal­la said he gave no un­der­tak­ing to keep the date con­fi­den­tial and if it was meant to be kept from the pub­lic, O'Con­nor's email did not say so.

He said in the cir­cum­stances it was best if the TTDC de­part­ed the field, since it had lost all cred­i­bil­i­ty and had proven to be par­tial and in­com­pe­tent.

Ear­li­er in the day, in an­oth­er press re­lease, Lal­la said, "We have lost faith in the De­bates Com­mis­sion."

He al­so ques­tioned the TTDC's abil­i­ty to ar­bi­trate and set up a de­bate.

Lal­la said the PM has agreed to par­tic­i­pate in the Ju­ly 30 de­bate or­gan­ised by CN­MG and chal­lenged Row­ley to take part as well.


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