Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Leg­is­la­tion passed in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day in­cludes pro­vi­sion for a Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion date be­ing called with­in three months of May 18, 2023—a date to be set pri­or to Au­gust 18, 2023 - and that the Writs of Elec­tions shall be is­sued in due course by the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour con­firmed the bill’s pro­vi­sions when he pi­lot­ed it in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day af­ter­noon. It was lat­er passed with amend­ments. It re­quired a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty vote for pas­sage. There was no call for di­vi­sion in the vote.

The five-clause bill be­came nec­es­sary fol­low­ing the Privy Coun­cil’s May 18 judg­ment which deemed Gov­ern­ment’s ex­ten­sion of the LG term be­yond De­cem­ber 2, 2022, as un­law­ful.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley sub­se­quent­ly said the LG elec­tion would be held with­in three months af­ter the Privy Coun­cil’s May 18 judg­ment.

The Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions (Ex­ten­sion of Terms of Of­fice and Val­i­da­tion) Bill, 2023, pre­sent­ed by Ar­mour, ex­tends un­til May 18, 2023, the terms of of­fice of all coun­cil­lors and al­der­men elect­ed in De­cem­ber 2019 and whose terms ex­pired on De­cem­ber 2nd, 2022.

It pro­vides for Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions with­in three months of May 18, 2023; and is al­so geared to val­i­date the func­tions and ac­tions of those coun­cil­lors and al­der­men be­tween the pe­ri­od De­cem­ber 2, 2022, and May 18, 2023.

Ar­mour not­ed the Prime Min­is­ter’s May 24 state­ment on the cur­rent LG is­sue.

On the Privy Coun­cil’s May 18 judg­ment, Ar­mour added, “They have held (a,) that the ex­ten­sion of the term of of­fice of in­cum­bent coun­cil­lors and al­der­men by one year con­sti­tut­ed NO vi­o­la­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go; but that, (b) that ex­ten­sion by amend­ment could not be in­ter­pret­ed as ap­ply­ing to the in­cum­bent coun­cil­lors and al­der­men whose terms ex­pired in De­cem­ber 2022.

“We ac­cept the rul­ing of the Privy Coun­cil. We ac­cept now that to­day, we must pro­vide with clar­i­ty for the pe­ri­od that has run its course since De­cem­ber 2022 to the 18th of May, 2023, the date of the de­ci­sion of the Privy Coun­cil and, up to the pas­sage in­to law of the Act, for which of this is the Bill.”

Ar­mour said un­til the judg­ment was de­liv­ered on May 18, 2023, the cor­po­ra­tions con­tin­ued to func­tion law­ful­ly. “The in­cum­bents con­tin­ued in of­fice ini­tial­ly on the ba­sis of the view held by the Gov­ern­ment that the pro­claimed amend­ments ap­plied to the in­cum­bents, there­by ex­tend­ing their terms of of­fice from three to four years. This was plain­ly not an un­rea­son­able view and was one held in good faith, since this was al­so the view of a unan­i­mous Court of Ap­peal,” the AG said.

“More di­rect­ly, the in­cum­bents act­ed in their of­fices af­ter 10th Feb­ru­ary 2023 pur­suant to the de­ci­sion of the Court of Ap­peal, which held on that date that the four-year term ap­plied to them.”

He said the state paid their salaries in ex­change for their ser­vices.

“In ad­di­tion, the wider pub­lic re­ceived the ben­e­fit of those ser­vices.”

Ar­mour added, “This Gov­ern­ment, led by Dr the Ho­n­ourable Kei­th C Row­ley, Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go, ful­ly en­dors­es that the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions must now be held so as to en­sure the con­ti­nu­ity of the life of lo­cal gov­ern­ment cor­po­ra­tions for all per­sons through­out the coun­try.”

He said this en­sures that each mem­ber of the pub­lic can ex­er­cise their right ac­cord­ing to law to par­tic­i­pate in the LG elec­tion.

Clause five of the bill val­i­dates “the func­tions and all acts or things done by coun­cil­lors and al­der­men for the 24-week pe­ri­od be­tween De­cem­ber 2, 2022 to 18 May 2023.”

“The hard work, dili­gence and dai­ly achieve­ments, pro­gres­sion of projects vis-a-vis the use of plant, ma­chin­ery and equip­ment by the coun­cil­lors and al­der­men are recog­nised, do not go un­no­ticed by this Gov­ern­ment and are val­i­dat­ed,” he added.