Charles to Amery Browne: Stop fooling the population, we are unopposed

Mr. Rodney Charles
Member of Parliament
Naparima
Minister Browne must tell the population, who exactly is TT campaigning against for the Presidency of the UN General Assembly (UNGA)? This week, Browne expressed his confidence that TT will be elected as President later this year.
He has every reason to be confident, as TT is unopposed in the election due to ground work that was laid in September 2013 under the leadership of Kamla Persad Bissessar.
UN procedural rules of geographic rotation and decades old selection practices within the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC) mean that our candidate for PGA is unopposed and TT is 100% guaranteed to be the next President of the United Nations General Assembly (PGA) of the UNGA come September.
Because of this rotation, every ten years, a CARICOM Ambassador is elected unopposed as PGA.
In 2013 Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador John Ashe was elected unopposed as PGA of the UNGA.
Ten years before that in 2003 Julian Hunte from St Lucia was elected unopposed. And ten years prior in 1993, it was Samuel R. Insanally from Guyana.
When TT’s nomination was made in 2013, on the advice of then PGA Ashe it was endorsed unopposed by CARICOM it was with the clear understanding that ten years later come 2023 TT Ambassador to the UN, whomever he or she may be; would be elected unopposed.
Based on UN geographic rotational rules and GRULAC conventions, only another CARICOM country can oppose TT’s Ambassador Dennis Francis.
That is most unlikely and will never happen based on CARICOM practice at the UN.
Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Amery Browne must be honest and not fool us into believing that there is ever likely to be a competitive election for a PGA from our region.
Minister Browne cannot take credit for that which his Government did precious little. It was gifted by the PP administration. TT’s Presidency of the UNGA later this year is a seminal achievement of Kamla Persad Bissessar’s Government, not this PNM administration.