Shal­iza Has­sanali

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will make yet an­oth­er at­tempt to im­ple­ment the death penal­ty in a bid to curb the coun­try's spi­ralling crime. But she needs the Op­po­si­tion sup­port. Per­sad-Bisses­sar made the an­nounce­ment yes­ter­day at the com­mis­sion­ing of the Tal­paro Portable Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant. Ques­tioned about re­newed calls by cit­i­zens for the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the death penal­ty fol­low­ing the cer­e­mo­ni­al turn­ing-on of the plant's tap, Per­sad-Bisss­esar thought there will al­ways be naysay­ers: "The ma­jor­i­ty of the cit­i­zen­ry are in­ter­est­ed in hav­ing the death penal­ty im­ple­ment­ed," she added.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said this was part of the law of T&T, and that the lack of sup­port from the Op­po­si­tion on the last oc­ca­sion pre­vent­ed it from go­ing through. "We will try again be­cause we have to find ways to re­duce the crime rate." Last Jan­u­ary, Per­sad-Bisses­sar tabled leg­is­la­tion in the Par­lia­ment to amend the Con­sti­tu­tion to re­move ma­jor ob­sta­cles to the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the death penal­ty. Al­though the Op­po­si­tion stat­ed that it sub­scribed to the law of the death penal­ty, it did not sup­port the leg­is­la­tion. Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so in­sist­ed the SoE was suc­cess­ful. "It worked. The mur­der rates went down last year in six years."