A by-elec­tion has been de­clared in the con­stituen­cy of St Joseph.

Min­utes ago, House Speak­er Wade Mark for­mal­ly de­clared Her­bert Vol­ney's for­mer seat va­cant at to­day's sit­ting of Par­lia­ment, clear­ing the way for the by-elec­tion to take place by De­cem­ber.

A by-elec­tion must be held up to a max­i­mum of 90 days–up to De­cem­ber 27 lat­est–af­ter the seat is de­clared va­cant.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is the per­son who has the pow­er to an­nounce the date.

On Sep­tem­ber 9, Vol­ney walked out of Par­lia­ment af­ter Mark called on him to cease per­form­ing his func­tions as Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, fol­low­ing Vol­ney's de­ci­sion to re­sign as a mem­ber of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC). Vol­ney won the seat on a UNC tick­et in 2010.

Un­der Sec­tion 49 A (4) of the Con­sti­tu­tion, Mark re­quired Vol­ney to cease per­form­ing his func­tions as a mem­ber of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives with im­me­di­ate ef­fect. He was giv­en 14 days to legal­ly chal­lenge or ac­cept the Speak­er's rul­ing but he did not do so. That 14-day win­dow closed on Sep­tem­ber 23.

A re­lease is­sued on Sep­tem­ber 18 by St Joseph con­stituen­cy of­fice man­ag­er, Mark Dols­ingh, de­scribed Sep­tem­ber 23 as "a day of in­famy for the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic way of life of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go".

Dols­ingh said Vol­ney main­tained his dis­agree­ment with the Speak­er's rul­ing. He said Vol­ney had sought and ob­tained the ad­vice of Se­nior Coun­sel who of­fered the opin­ion that there was a strong jus­ti­cia­ble cause against the Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to chal­lenge and up­set his rul­ing. On Sep­tem­ber 26, Vol­ney said a St Joseph elec­tor was prepar­ing a le­gal con­sti­tu­tion­al mo­tion against the Speak­er's rul­ing.