The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election is on.
However, it may be open to legal challenges, legal minds in the Senate warned yesterday.
With a vote of 28 for and one against, the Senate yesterday cleared the way for the THA elections to be held tomorrow.
An extraordinary sitting of the Senate was held yesterday to debate the Tobago House of Assembly Election (Validation) Bill 2017 after the House of Representatives voted to pass the Bill with a vote of 37 for and none against on Friday.
The bill came about because of a miscalculation between the nomination day and the election day for the THA.
However, while the Upper House yesterday voted for the election to proceed, senators on both the Opposition and Independent benches warned of possible legal action to occur as a result of the bill being passed.
During his contribution Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen said the Opposition will support the bill because they "care about the people of Tobago" but warned that there could be legal challenges.
"I do not believe that what we are enacting here is going to cure the illegality that has been perpetrated," Ramdeen said.
"Coming here today to validate the writs will not cure the legal consequences that will flow from what transpired thus far and therefore while this might cure the issue with respect to the EBC (Elections and Boundaries Commission) and with respect to His Excellency (President Anthony Carmona) issuing those writs this document and what we are asked to pass here today by the Attorney General (Faris Al-Rawi) will open itself up to challenge in the courts and I am of the view that if we come here to try and cure something that we all accept has been wrong we should try and do it the right way," Ramdeen said.
Ramdeen suggested that a clause be inserted in the Validation Bill to "insulate" the process from legal challenge.
Independent Senator Sophia Chote described the situation as a "storm in a tea cup" over a "bureaucratic error" but also warned about potential legal challenges.
"Even if this bill is passed and comes into law, the fact is we have to accept that it is likely to be challenged," Chote said.
"Because when I read it and I saw that there was no reference to the sections four and five of the Constitution I realised that this is piece of legislation which is going to be passed by a bare majority and therefore it is constitutionally vulnerable," Chote said.
Independent Senator Melissa Ramkissoon was the only Parliamentarian to vote against the bill.
"I cannot support this because it stands against my view of consistency and being consistent to show that we are adhering to our laws of Trinidad and Tobago. I believe in putting a message to Trinidad and Tobago to be law-abiding citizens and I believe it starts from the top. Unfortunately if we don't support it from the top it will never trickle down, we have challenges with operationalising our laws and I have always said it here we need to make an example and I think unfortunately I cannot support this," she said.