Two bills on today’s House of Representatives agenda will require special majority votes—including Opposition votes—for passage. Already, the UNC has expressed concerns.
But three of the five Opposition MPs who recently spoke out on party executive elections—Rushton Paray, Dr Rai Ragbir and Rodney Charles—have signalled they’ll do their duty in line with the UNC’s position and internal party matters don’t interfere with their Parliamentary duty.
Leader of Government Business in the House, Camille Robinson-Regis, yesterday confirmed the Constitution Amendment Bill and the Miscellaneous Provisions (Testing and Identification) Bill 2022 are on the agenda.
The Constitution Amendment bill proposes to allow the Police Service Commission (PolSC) to make acting appointments for the Commissioner of Police and deputy CoP without having to seek parliamentary approval.
According to its explanatory notes, the bill requires a two-thirds majority vote for passage. Parliament officials said that involves 28 votes. In addition to the Government’s 22 votes, the votes of about six Opposition MPs will be necessary.
The Miscellaneous Provisions bill involves polygraph, drug testing and biometric identification of officers in the protective services and Judicial and Legal services and civil services. Debate is listed to continue on this. The bill was first introduced in January 2022. After it lapsed, it was reintroduced in 2023.
This bill requires a three-fifths majority vote for passage—26 votes. In addition to the Government’s 22 votes, the support of at least four Opposition MPs is needed.
In February, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had said legislation would have been presented “in the next few weeks or days” to allow the PolSC to make the acting appointment for CoP and deputy CoP minus having to seek parliamentary approval.
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar subsequently countered there must be Parliamentary oversight and scrutiny of such appointments. She said removing approval “is a blatant attempt to undermine public transparency and accountability” and the bill was anti-democratic.
Yesterday, UNC deputy political leader and Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal said the Constitution bill was, “a nefarious attempt by the Rowley Government to bypass the entrenched system in the appointment of a Commissioner of Police and is a diabolical attempt to impose a PNM hack ahead of the general election”.
In a statement to the media, he also said, “The Government will be confronted by Opposition speakers’ compelling arguments. And we expect all right-thinking Members of Parliament to resist this dictatorial erosion of our democracy.”
Full support
Mayaro MP Paray said he will be doing his duty. His position was also echoed by Charles and Ragbir.
Paray said, “I’ll continue to do my duty in and out of the Parliament. I remain a loyal, dedicated United National Congress member, I await the calling of the date for the party’s internal election. I’ve attended all sittings so far including a Joint Select Committee as usual. My position is that our internal party matters does not/should not interfere with our Parliamentary duty.”
Ragbir, who said he’s attending Parliament as it’s his civic duty, added, “I’ll vote with my UNC colleagues as dictated by the chief whip and political leader. Whatever happens in Parliament is for T&T’s betterment and party issues are party issues.”
Charles said, “I’ll support the party’s position in Parliament.”
Charles holds a briefing today with the Naparima constituency executive on the theme “T&T at an inflection point - Three terms in Opposition by the UNC and a Rowley administration until 2030 will be inconceivably disastrous for T&T.”
MPs who complained on Natex and leadership issues, Anita Haynes-Alleyne and Dinesh Rambally did not respond to calls about how they would vote on the bills.
Persad-Bissessar recently said MPs who break the party line will be expelled under UNC’s constitution.