JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

COP seeks delay on vote

by

20140810

The Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) has tak­en a de­ci­sion that vot­ing on the Con­sti­tu­tion (Amend­ment) Bill 2014 should be de­ferred for at least one month to al­low for greater analy­sis of the leg­is­la­tion.The COP's na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive ar­rived at the de­ci­sion yes­ter­day af­ter ex­ten­sive de­lib­er­a­tions with mem­bers of its na­tion­al coun­cil at the par­ty's Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre in Char­lieville.

"Maybe a month would do. It's a rea­son­able time frame, I think," COP leader Prakash Ra­mad­har, said.

He said tak­ing the bill be­fore a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment was one op­tion put for­ward.

The meet­ing be­gan about 10.30 am and con­clud­ed close to 4 pm and was at­tend­ed by par­ty founder Win­ston Dook­er­an, COP MPs and mem­bers.Ra­mad­har, ad­dress­ing the me­dia af­ter, said "We be­lieve no leg­is­la­tion should be brought with­out the pop­u­la­tion un­der­stand­ing it."

Asked how the COP will even­tu­al­ly vote on the bill, he replied, "The na­tion­al coun­cil left it up to us to vote.

"What is best for T&T is best for the COP."

In­di­cat­ing in which di­rec­tion the par­ty may be vot­ing, Ra­mad­har said con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form was some­thing the COP had want­ed.

Ra­mad­har is chair­man of the Con­sti­tu­tion Re­form Com­mis­sion, which held con­sul­ta­tions na­tion­wide on con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form.

"The runoff bal­lot will en­rich par­tic­i­pa­to­ry democ­ra­cy. There will be two lev­els of vot­ing now."

He said, on the con­trary, runoff elec­tions will not kill off third par­ties. It was a ques­tion of whether the West­min­ster po­lit­i­cal sys­tem of first-past-the-post and the win­ner takes all should be left as it is, or be im­proved.

Asked if he felt Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will heed the COP's re­quest, Ra­mad­har said, "It's re­al­ly a mat­ter for the Prime Min­is­ter. But when it comes to giv­ing an ear to mat­ters of na­tion­al im­por­tance, we've been well re­spect­ed."

Dook­er­an, who left the meet­ing be­fore it end­ed, spoke briefly with the me­dia, de­fer­ring ques­tions to the po­lit­i­cal leader.He said the con­sen­sus among na­tion­al coun­cil mem­bers was that de­bate on the bill can be start­ed but should not be con­clud­ed just yet.

Ru­fus Fos­ter, who had con­test­ed the lead­er­ship post in the COP's re­cent elec­tions, said mem­bers to­tal­ly re­ject­ed the runoff bal­lot."They felt it should be shelved un­til prop­er­ly analysed."

Fos­ter said Ra­mad­har, how­ev­er, felt the COP should not waive its right to vote on the bill.While he spoke to the me­dia, oth­er COP mem­bers be­came ag­i­tat­ed and said he was giv­ing false in­for­ma­tion.An uniden­ti­fied man in the COP of­fice shout­ed, "Prakash is a UNC, Bhoe is a UNC, the whole ex­ec­u­tive gone UNC!"

Ra­mad­har said the is­sue of runoff elec­tions was dis­cussed at the na­tion­al con­sul­ta­tions but mem­bers of the pub­lic did not take con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form se­ri­ous­ly.

Re­spond­ing to for­mer prime min­is­ter and UNC leader Bas­deo Pan­day who said runoff elec­tions will take the coun­try back to trib­al vot­ing, he said, "The is­sue of racial vot­ing is sub­sid­ing."

He dis­missed charges the bill will in­cite civ­il un­rest."On what ba­sis? The coun­try has shown it­self com­mit­ted to law and or­der."

Sus­pend­ed COP mem­bers Satu Ram­cha­ran and Rudolph Hanamji kept up a protest demon­stra­tion out­side the of­fice for the du­ra­tion of the meet­ing. They were joined for a short while by Kirk Wait­he of Fix­in T&T, who said the protest would con­tin­ue lat­er in the yes­ter­day evening and to­day out­side Par­lia­ment.

'Ram­lo­gan wrong'

Con­sti­tu­tion­al Re­form Com­mis­sion mem­ber, Dr Mer­le Hodge has said the runoff bal­lot was not part of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship man­i­festo, the con­sul­ta­tions, or the com­mis­sion's fi­nal re­port.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan re­spond­ed to her dis­clo­sure by say­ing the com­mis­sion­ers were hand­some­ly paid.Ra­mad­har, asked to re­spond to this, said, the AG's state­ment was dis­taste­ful and that Hodge is a well-re­spect­ed mem­ber of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty who is en­ti­tled to her view.

COP chair­man Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan said she al­so con­demned the AG's "at­tack" on Hodge.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored