Trinidad opposition motion fails, Rowley next
By Bert Wilkinson
An unprecedented opposition
motion seeking to remove
Trinidad’s ceremonial president
for misconduct in office failed
miserably on Thursday but the
main opposition United National
Congress (UNC) Friday vowed to
step up its game and make Prime
Minister Keith Rowley the target
of its next parliamentary no confidence
effort.
Clearly embarrassed and put
on the political back foot by the
47-24 vote tally of the island’s
electoral college comprising the
house and the senate, leader and
former prime minister Kamla
Persad-Bissessar said her party’s
political sights will now be turned
on Rowley as she and other opposition
lawmakers heaped scorn
on several independent senators
who voted with legislators from
the governing People’s National
Movement (PNM).
The UNC had drafted the
motion against titular President
Paula Mae Weeks, accusing
her of colluding with Rowley
and his cabinet to undermine
the independence of the constitutionally
protected police service
commission. The body has been
embroiled in a bitter controversy
over the appointment of a new
police chief. Most of its members
have resigned hinting about procedural
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discomfort with recent
events even as officials are struggling
to name new commissioners
.Weekes, a former judge in
Trinidad and the Eastern Caribbean,
is the first woman president
of the twin island republic
with Tobago. Appointed to wide
acclaim in 2018, she has not said
much on the issue apart from
denying breaching procedures
regarding the PSC and its links to
state agencies.
From all appearances, the
UNC is attempting to mirror the
successful late 2018 effort of the
then opposition but now governing
People’s Progressive Party
(PPP) in neighboring Guyana as
it had persuaded a single government
lawmaker to vote with
it and erase the wafer thin, one
seat majority that the government
had. Hamstrung by its parliamentary
defeat, the multiparty
coalition called elections just over
a year later and lost to the PPP.
“It’s coming. The last time I
brought a no-confidence motion
against the prime minister in
2010 the government fell, so it’s
coming in due course. This matter
will be kept alive long after
today until the truth is revealed.
We will take it onto the people
as an October revolution as happened
in other countries when a
constitution has failed. The prime
minister will find no rock large
enough to hide under or no robe
thick enough to protect him from
the firestorm that will come his
way as a wage for treading on our
sacred constitution,” and angry
Persad-Bissessar told reporters.
The parliamentary session was
marred by loud desk thumping,
President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Paula-
Mae Weekes O.R.T.T. Offi ce of the President of Trinidad and Tobago
verbal interruptions and shouts
from the chair, forcing Speaker
Brigid Annisette-George to several
times cut the microphones
of several opposition lawmakers.
Rowley said he remains flabbergasted
by the conduct of his opponents
during the controversial
sitting.
“There’s one word to describe
what happened today and it is disgraceful.
But I’m not surprised.
It is not the first time that this
opposition leader, this person,
has led people to disgrace this
country. This is my country and
all I can say of them, they are a
group of disgraceful people, unfit
and unworthy of public office,”
Rowley said.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime
Minister Keith Rowley. Government
of Trinidad and Tobago
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