Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says the bor­ders will not be re­opened to al­low na­tion­als out­side the coun­try the chance to re­turn home to vote in the Au­gust 10 gen­er­al elec­tions.

Row­ley made the com­ment mo­ments af­ter an­nounc­ing the date in Par­lia­ment on Fri­day, af­ter he was asked by re­porters if the Gov­ern­ment would con­sid­er the move with the COVID-19 virus still rav­aging coun­tries world­wide.

“Well, the bor­ders are in­flu­enced by our health con­di­tions and as we go to­wards the fu­ture the bor­ders are closed and we would have brought in as many as we can and we con­tin­ue un­til it is opened but it is not a con­di­tion for hav­ing an elec­tion,” Row­ley said.

The bor­ders have been closed since March as the Gov­ern­ment im­posed trav­el bans as a means to mit­i­gate against the spread of the virus.

Row­ley al­so ex­pressed con­fi­dence that his Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment would be able to win the elec­tion de­spite the short time they have to mo­bilise sup­port­ers.

Asked if he felt the re­cent protests across the coun­try over the po­lice killings of three Mor­vant men could over­shad­ow the par­ty’s cam­paign ef­forts, Row­ley said, “There is a time and place for every­thing and I hope we would take se­ri­ous things se­ri­ous­ly. The protests were spo­radic, we have gone past that now and we are on to some­thing else now, elec­tions are im­por­tant and I trust the pop­u­la­tion will treat elec­tions se­ri­ous­ly.”

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar mean­while said she was ex­cit­ed at the date.

“I think the coun­try is wait­ing to ex­hale. We’ve had five years of bru­tal­i­ty. Five years of ne­glect. Five years of suf­fer­ing,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said out­side the Red House in Port-of-Spain.

Al­so ex­press­ing con­fi­dence in her par­ty’s abil­i­ty to suc­ceed at the polls, she said her team will be ready.

“I plan to name all my can­di­dates by this week­end. I will name all my can­di­dates by Sun­day,” she said as­sertive­ly.

She de­nied sug­ges­tions that the cam­paign will be a short one, say­ing the 2010 cam­paign was short­er. How­ev­er, she said her first con­cern was that the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion had not shared their new guide­lines with her par­ty.

Asked if she still had con­cerns about the date in the con­text of thou­sands of na­tion­als be­ing stuck out­side the coun­try with the bor­ders still closed, she said, “I still have that con­cern. There are thou­sands of peo­ple out there who may be dis­en­fran­chised if they are not al­lowed to en­ter the coun­try.”

How­ev­er, she ex­pressed con­fi­dence that the bor­ders would be opened up in mid-Ju­ly giv­en what oth­er Caribbean is­lands have done in open­ing up.