Finance Minister Nizam Burke has dismissed as a “very cheap political manoeuvre” the motion of no confidence filed against Prime Minister Tillman Thomas by the main opposition New National Party (NNP).

Burke, who is here attending a conference on small island development states (SIDS), told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the motion filed by Opposition Leader and former prime minister Dr. Keith Mitchell will be defeated. “It is a very cheap political manoeuvre which will be exposed for what it is at the sitting of the Parliament and will be defeated.

We are confident that the motion will not survive. “It will provide in fact a wonderful opportunity for the government to first of all expose the leadership of the former Prime Minister for what it was what it did to Grenada and of course to speak to the achievements of this government. So we see this as an opportunity and we will deal with it as such,” Burke told CMC.

“It is cheap because it is not motivated by a genuine belief that this Prime Minister is improper, inadequate or incompetent or inefficient. It is motivated by a simple and unadulterated grab for political office,” he added.

Last week, the NNP said it had filed a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Thomas amid infighting within the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the government. Mitchell said that the motion would be debated at the next sitting of the Parliament due next month and that it had been filed ahead of the resignation of tourism, civil aviation and culture minister Peter David last Monday.