Gail Alexan­der

The PNM's San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy be­gan a silent protest last night against the sus­pen­sion of MP Patrick Man­ning from the Par­lia­ment on Mon­day, con­stituen­cy chair­man Tina Gron­lund-Nunez con­firmed.While no end date was giv­en for the sus­pen­sion, Par­lia­ment of­fi­cials in­di­cat­ed the sus­pen­sion may last for a month un­til the cur­rent ses­sion of Par­lia­ment pro­rogues around June 17.The sus­pen­sion aris­es from a re­port of Par­lia­ment's Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee.Man­ning was found guilty of con­tempt by the com­mit­tee af­ter he made al­le­ga­tions last No­vem­ber about Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's house.

In a House vote on the is­sue on Mon­day, 25 Gov­ern­ment MPs vot­ed for sus­pen­sion while the nine Op­po­si­tion PNM MPs, in­clud­ing leader Kei­th Row­ley, vot­ed against.Man­ning was en route to Cu­ba for a med­ical check-up when the news broke.The sus­pen­sion was made "with im­me­di­ate ef­fect" but no end date was ann­nounced, the PNM not­ed yes­ter­day.PNM MP Colm Im­bert said it was there­fore not clear to the PNM how long the sus­pen­sion was.He said: "There are two schools of thought, one, that the sus­pen­sion lasts un­til the end of the ses­sion in June, or, that it could con­tin­ue in­def­i­nite­ly un­til the Speak­er says."

Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day con­firmed that the ses­sion will pro­rogue around June 17, a year af­ter the first ses­sion be­gan. Of­fi­cials there said it was like­ly the sus­pen­sion would end when the ses­sion pro­rogues.They in­di­cat­ed that if Man­ning had to re­turn ear­li­er, a mo­tion on this would have to be de­bat­ed and passed by the House where the PP Gov­ern­ment has a 29-seat ma­jor­i­ty and the PNM has 12 seats.San Fer­nan­do East chair­man Gron­lund Nunez said con­stituents were stag­ing a silent protest at the con­stituen­cy's Cof­fee Street, San Fer­nan­do, of­fice against the de­vel­op­ment.