Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has an­nounced that the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of the new ses­sion of Par­lia­ment will take place on May 23. How­ev­er, she added yes­ter­day that “the first work­ing sit­ting will take place on a date to be fixed.”

The an­nounce­ment fol­lows the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ (UNC) 26-13 vic­to­ry over the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, which re­turned Per­sad-Bisses­sar to the helm of Gov­ern­ment.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, the Prime Min­is­ter con­firmed that the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny will fea­ture an ad­dress to a joint sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the Sen­ate by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo.

“MPs to be sworn in, then speak­er elect­ed, then the Pres­i­dent’s ad­dress then re­marks by the Prime Min­is­ter and Op­po­si­tion leader,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said in a What­sApp mes­sage.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar fur­ther not­ed that sen­a­tors will al­so be sworn-in in the Sen­ate cham­ber and the Sen­ate pres­i­dent and vice pres­i­dent will al­so be elect­ed.

The Pres­i­dent’s speech is ex­pect­ed to out­line the Gov­ern­ment’s broad leg­isla­tive and pol­i­cy agen­da for the up­com­ing term.

How­ev­er, Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that while the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing date is con­firmed, a date for the first of­fi­cial sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives has not yet been fi­nalised.

The cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of Par­lia­ment, though sym­bol­ic in na­ture, holds deep con­sti­tu­tion­al sig­nif­i­cance. It rep­re­sents the for­mal be­gin­ning of a new leg­isla­tive ses­sion and re­in­forces the prin­ci­ples of par­lia­men­tary democ­ra­cy.

All eyes will be on who is elect­ed to oc­cu­py key po­si­tions in both the Low­er and Up­per House.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to UNC mem­ber Wade Mark, who is tipped to be House Speak­er, as well as Ca­roni Cen­tral MP David Lee, who is be­lieved to be ap­point­ed Leader of gov­ern­ment busi­ness. How­ev­er, there was no re­sponse up un­til news time.

This year’s open­ing is ex­pect­ed to draw con­sid­er­able pub­lic and me­dia at­ten­tion, as it will be Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­turn to the Prime Min­is­ter’s chair af­ter pre­vi­ous­ly serv­ing from 2010 to 2015.

More de­tails on the Pres­i­dent’s ad­dress and the Prime Min­is­ter’s ini­tial agen­da for the first 100 days in of­fice are ex­pect­ed to be re­leased fol­low­ing the cer­e­mo­ny.