How Par­lia­ment works

This ar­ti­cle is main­ly con­cerned with the func­tion­ing of the leg­isla­tive branch of the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, name­ly Par­lia­ment. Par­lia­ment, gen­er­al­ly, has a five-year life span. How­ev­er, the Pres­i­dent, on the ad­vice of the Prime Min­is­ter, may dis­solve Par­lia­ment at an ear­li­er date.

Com­po­si­tion of Par­lia­ment

Sec­tion 39 of the Con­sti­tu­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go pro­vides for the com­po­si­tion of Par­lia­ment. It states that the Par­lia­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go must com­prise of the Pres­i­dent and the two Hous­es–the Sen­ate and the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. All three con­stituent parts make up the leg­isla­tive branch of the gov­ern­ment, that is, Par­lia­ment.

The Pres­i­dent

The Pres­i­dent is elect­ed for a pe­ri­od of five years, by an elec­toral col­lege con­sist­ing of mem­bers of both the Sen­ate and the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Sen­ate

The Sen­ate is the ap­point­ed Up­per House of Par­lia­ment and sits in the Red House in Port-of-Spain.

The Sen­ate has 31 mem­bers ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent. Six­teen gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors are ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent, act­ing in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of the Prime Min­is­ter; six Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tors are ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent, act­ing in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion; and nine In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors are ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent in his dis­cre­tion from out­stand­ing peo­ple from eco­nom­ic, so­cial or com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions and oth­er ma­jor fields of en­deav­our.

Sec­tion 41 of the Con­sti­tu­tion pro­vides that a per­son is qual­i­fied for mem­ber­ship in the Sen­ate on­ly if he/she is a cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go and is at least 25-years-old. Sec­tion 45 fur­ther pro­vides that at the first meet­ing of the Sen­ate af­ter a gen­er­al elec­tion, a sen­a­tor, who is nei­ther min­is­ter nor par­lia­men­tary sec­re­tary, must be elect­ed to be Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate. The Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate pre­sides over the sit­tings of the Sen­ate and acts as chair­man of com­mit­tees of the whole Sen­ate. He or she has the pow­er to in­ter­pret the Stand­ing Or­ders and to reg­u­late all mat­ters that are not pro­vid­ed for in the Or­ders.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Sec­tion 27 of the Con­sti­tu­tion per­mits the Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate to act tem­porar­i­ly as the Pres­i­dent of Trinidad and To­ba­go where the of­fice is va­cant or when the Pres­i­dent is in­ca­pable of per­form­ing his func­tions by rea­son of his ab­sence from Trinidad and To­ba­go or ill­ness. Bills or leg­isla­tive pro­pos­als can first be in­tro­duced ei­ther in the Sen­ate or the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Ide­al­ly, the Sen­ate seeks to rep­re­sent the views and in­ter­ests of those el­e­ments of so­ci­ety which may be in­suf­fi­cient­ly re­flect­ed in the com­po­si­tion of the elect­ed House.

House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is the elect­ed Low­er House of Par­lia­ment and al­so sits in the Red House in Port of Spain. The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives con­sists of 41 mem­bers who are elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the con­stituen­cies in Trinidad and To­ba­go for a five-year pe­ri­od. Sec­tion 47 of the Con­sti­tu­tion states that a per­son must be a cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go of at least 18 years of age and has resided in Trinidad and To­ba­go for a pe­ri­od of two years im­me­di­ate­ly be­fore the date of his or her nom­i­na­tion for elec­tion or is domi­ciled and res­i­dent in Trinidad and To­ba­go at that date in or­der to be elect­ed as a mem­ber of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Sec­tion 50 of the Con­sti­tu­tion pro­vides that at the first meet­ing of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives af­ter a gen­er­al elec­tion and be­fore it pro­ceeds to the dis­patch of any oth­er busi­ness, a per­son must be elect­ed to be the Speak­er of the House from among mem­bers of the House who are not min­is­ters or par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries. Peo­ple who are not mem­bers of ei­ther the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives or the Sen­ate may al­so be se­lect­ed pro­vid­ed that he or she is a cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go and is not dis­qual­i­fied for elec­tion as a mem­ber of the House.

The Speak­er pre­sides over each sit­ting of the House and acts as chair­man of com­mit­tees of the House and is al­so re­spon­si­ble for the man­age­ment and gen­er­al ad­min­is­tra­tion of the House. He or she in­ter­prets Stand­ing Or­ders and prac­tices of the House, deals with points of or­der and gives rul­ings when called up­on. The Speak­er is some­times re­ferred to as the guardian of the priv­i­leges of the Mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

–Safiya Charles and West­min James

�2 This ar­ti­cle sets out gen­er­al guide­lines. All rules have ex­cep­tions and vari­a­tions. How the law ap­plies to you de­pends on the facts of your case.

�2 This col­umn is an ini­tia­tive of the Trinidad Guardian and the Law As­so­ci­a­tion, with as­sis­tance from stu­dents of the Hugh Wood­ing Law School.