"Prime Minister, fix the date for Local Government elections."
That was the call yesterday from Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, following the Privy Council judgment in favour of UNC activist Ravi Balgobin Maharaj, who had challenged the postponement of the Local Government elections.
Persad-Bissessar has also demanded answers on whether LG councillors will now have to return salaries they received after extension of the term beyond the original March 2023 end - and if corporations' decisions since then are legal.
In a statement, Persad-Bissesssar congratulated Maharaj and lauded the UNC's legal team led by former AG Anand Ramlogan, SC.
She said the judgment is a landmark legal decision which has significant political effects.
Persad-Bissessar said, "The UNC, consistent with its duty as the loyal Opposition in the Parliament, calls on the Prime Minister, on behalf of the electorate, to immediately fix the date for Local Government elections and to ensure that such elections are held lawfully and freely."
The UNC held a Chaguanas meeting on Wednesday to finalise election preparations.
Following the judgment's rule against the extension of the term, Persad-Bissessar, citing a "mess" caused by Government, asked, "Were salaries paid to councillors and aldermen after the March cut-off date lawful? Would they have to pay it back?
"What about the many decisions made by these corporations after that date? Are they legal? Will the Government now have to come back to the Parliament to validate all of this? What is the cost to the taxpayer arising from this debacle? Who is to be made accountable?"
Lashing the PNM on the extension, Persad-Bissessar said, "This Government has, over the past seven years, consistently sought to use its majority in the Parliament to undermine fundamental rights and freedoms and, more recently, to thwart the democratic process in T&T.
"This latest judgment is vindication of the right of the people to choose their representatives, and to choose to vote them out, if they offer themselves for re-election."
She said the "Rowley Government's overreach in manipulating the electoral process for Local Government" was unmasked by the highest court in the land.
Accusing Government of dictatorship and "attempting, unsuccessfully, to bully the population with its Parliament majority," she said it was clear the PNM used the Parliament "....For naked political purposes – to postpone the (LG) elections that were due by March because they were not ready!"
Persad-Bissessar added, "They'll want to come now and say the judgment was not unanimous. We expect them to intensify efforts to convince the population that the CCJ should replace the Privy Council."
She said the decision should be a lesson to the PNM Government, which plays with "words and is deliberately vague and glib with reporters and when answering questions in Parliament," that general and ambiguous words aren't sufficient concerning serious matters of governance and democracy.
Alerting the public to understand the Parliament cannot take away their right to vote, "except by very clear words," Persad-Bissessar cited Privy Council Law Lord Richards' words.