Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal re­porter

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 350 guests from sev­er­al sec­tors, along with school stu­dents, will be at­tend­ing to­mor­row’s cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of the first ses­sion of the 13th Par­lia­ment.

The streets around the Red House, where Par­lia­ment sits, in Port-of-Spain, are ex­pect­ed to be closed off to traf­fic from 6 am to 6 pm for the event. A no­tice is ex­pect­ed to be is­sued by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

Me­dia rep­re­sen­ta­tives were ap­prised by the Par­lia­ment’s com­mu­ni­ca­tion de­part­ment yes­ter­day of the prepa­ra­tions and pro­gramme for the event.

The launch of the new term fol­lows the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) win­ning the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion. The UNC, led by Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar—now Prime Min­is­ter—de­feat­ed the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), win­ning 26 seats to the PNM’s 13. The To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) won the To­ba­go East and West seats.

To­mor­row’s event will be the first cer­e­mo­ni­al launch of a Par­lia­ment term since 2015. A cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing in­volves an ad­dress to both Hous­es of Par­lia­ment by the Pres­i­dent.

There was none for the 2020 term due to the COVID pan­dem­ic.

Among the ap­prox­i­mate­ly 350 guests ex­pect­ed are Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, judges, mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps, UNC-held re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion of­fi­cials, the TPP and To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, Con­gress of the Peo­ple of­fi­cials, trade union lead­ers, rel­a­tives of mem­bers, for­mer pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers, youth par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and stu­dents from sur­round­ing pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools.

The Par­lia­ment is cater­ing for an over­flow of guests from the build­ing’s in­te­ri­or. Tents have been set up on the Red House grounds. There will be big screens and a “boom” (ex­tend­ed range) cam­era broad­cast­ing pro­ceed­ings. Cit­i­zens may al­so view the pomp and pageantry at Wood­ford Square.

Con­tin­gency plans have been put in place in the event of rain.

All eyes on pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers

The pro­ceed­ings be­gin with si­mul­ta­ne­ous sit­tings of both the Sen­ate and House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in their re­spec­tive South and North Cham­bers of the Red House.

At 1.30 pm, the Pres­i­dent’s procla­ma­tion will be read out by the clerks of each House, an­nounc­ing the launch of the 13th Par­lia­ment. The na­tion­al an­them will be played.

In each House, nom­i­na­tions will be read out for the Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate and Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Votes will be tak­en, and each Pre­sid­ing Of­fi­cer will be de­clared du­ly elect­ed.

Each pre­sid­ing of­fi­cer will be robed, brought back to their cham­ber and will take the oath of of­fice. The posts of Sen­ate Vice Pres­i­dent and Deputy Speak­er will al­so be ap­proved.

Sources were wait­ing on word to see if for­mer UNC Sen­a­tor Wade Mark will be Sen­ate Pres­i­dent (or re­turn as House Speak­er as he was in 2010) and what roles there would be for for­mer UNC Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al, for­mer Sen­a­tor Damien Ly­der and COP leader Prakash Ra­mad­har.

Al­so to be ap­point­ed are the Lead­ers of Sen­ate and House busi­ness, with Princes Town MP Dr Aiy­na Ali be­ing tipped for the lat­ter.

Mem­bers of the Sen­ate and House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives will then all take their oaths of of­fice, each in a 45-sec­ond de­c­la­ra­tion.

The Par­lia­ment is equipped with copies of the Bible, Bha­gavad Gi­ta and Qur’an on which mem­bers can swear their oath of of­fice or they can use an af­fir­ma­tion.

The Gov­ern­ment is yet to ap­point five more Sen­a­tors.

The In­de­pen­dent Sen­ate bench is tipped to in­clude a top T&T econ­o­mist along with aca­d­e­mics and a hu­man re­source pro­fes­sion­al.

The names of for­mer min­is­ters, de­feat­ed can­di­dates, a re­searcher and a UWI lec­tur­er have been heard in con­nec­tion with the Op­po­si­tion PNM’s Sen­ate team.

If any mem­ber choos­es to swear on the Con­sti­tu­tion, much like Per­sad-Bisses­sar did when she took her oath of of­fice as Prime Min­is­ter, a copy will be avail­able.

Up to yes­ter­day, there were no re­quests to use the Con­sti­tu­tion.

When pro­ceed­ings in each House are com­plet­ed, the Pres­i­dent -af­ter in­spect­ing a guard of ho­n­our of mil­i­tary per­son­nel - is ex­pect­ed to ad­dress the as­sem­bled gath­er­ing of both Hous­es.

In the HOR, Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les will de­liv­er re­marks. Sev­er­al bills will be laid.