Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles will not con­test the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion

In a re­lease Charles said, “Fur­ther to nu­mer­ous re­quests for my po­si­tion on the mat­ter, I wish to in­di­cate that I will not be sub­mit­ting nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to con­test the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion. As such, my ac­tive po­lit­i­cal ca­reer will end in 2025. ”

He said he will re­main a life­time mem­ber of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress and will con­tin­ue to as­sist the par­ty if called up­on.

Charles said he is pass­ing the ba­ton to a younger gen­er­a­tion.

“I will be 76 in 2025 and the time has come for my gen­er­a­tion to make way for younger politi­cians to as­sume the reins of lead­er­ship,” Charles said. “These must bring fresh ideas, be of im­pec­ca­ble in­tegri­ty, and even though rel­a­tive­ly young must have im­pres­sive aca­d­e­m­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tions in a wide range of pro­fes­sions but­tressed by per­for­mance track records in the pub­lic/pri­vate sec­tors, acad­e­mia or with NGOs. Above all they must first and fore­most dili­gent­ly pur­sue the in­ter­ests of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

he said as the old­est sit­ting MP in the Low­er House, he called on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, “as the sec­ond old­est” to join him in ush­er­ing in a new era of pol­i­tics.

“We must dis­card once and for all the no­tion that one has to leave TT pol­i­tics ei­ther in ig­nominy or in a cas­ket,” Charles said.