Shal­iza Has­sanali

Se­nior Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

In­sist­ing that the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is revving and ready to win the up­com­ing Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions, Op­po­si­tion MP Khadi­jah Ameen yes­ter­day called on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to an­nounce the elec­tion date in Par­lia­ment on Mon­day.

“The Privy Coun­cil has ruled. So I ask who is un­pa­tri­ot­ic now? Who is un­pa­tri­ot­ic for deny­ing cit­i­zens the right to choose their lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive? If you so be­lieve that the Privy Coun­cil was wrong. If you so be­lieve that the Op­po­si­tion is mak­ing mis­chief and if you name man, don’t go to the Par­lia­ment to­mor­row. Stay home,” Ameen chal­lenged Row­ley while speak­ing at the UNC press con­fer­ence on Sun­day.

She added: When we the Op­po­si­tion go to the Par­lia­ment on Mon­day to par­tic­i­pate in this bill, we hope that the Prime Min­is­ter will name (call) the date for elec­tion if he name man. Call the elec­tion and let peo­ple vote. Let the voic­es of the peo­ple he heard.”

She said the PNM has spent a lot of time “braks­ing” from an­nounc­ing the elec­tion date.

“I, like so many cit­i­zens, would like the Prime Min­is­ter to call the elec­tion date and al­low the cit­i­zens to go to the polls,” she said.

Fol­low­ing the Privy Coun­cil’s May 18 rul­ing which stopped Par­lia­ment ex­tend­ing the life of lo­cal gov­ern­ment bod­ies for a year from De­cem­ber 2, 2022, a bill was laid in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Fri­day to val­i­date sub­se­quent ac­tions of coun­cil­lors and al­der­men.

The Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions (Ex­ten­sion of Terms of Of­fice and Val­i­da­tion) Bill, 2023 was in­tro­duced in the name of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and will be de­bat­ed in the House to­day.

The elec­tion will be held with­in 90 days of the Privy Coun­cil’s judg­ment.

“We in the UNC main­tained at that time, and to this day, that it was im­prop­er, it was il­le­gal and it was against the prin­ci­ples of democ­ra­cy,” Ameen said, re­fer­ring to the ex­ten­sion.

Ameen said the Op­po­si­tion al­so faced an­oth­er sit­u­a­tion where the Gov­ern­ment failed to bring the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) 10th re­port in Par­lia­ment, as re­quired by law.

“It was on­ly when the UNC filed a mo­tion in Par­lia­ment and threat­ened le­gal ac­tion that the PNM was forced to bring that re­port in the House. It ap­peared that the PNM want­ed to hide the changes made to the bound­aries and the UNC again ques­tioned whether the PNM had the in­ten­tion of post­pon­ing the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion,” she said.

Ameen said the PNM now has to come to the Par­lia­ment to clean up the mess they have made.

The St Au­gus­tine MP urged the Gov­ern­ment to move on and stop blam­ing every­one for their fail­ures.

As shad­ow min­is­ter of lo­cal gov­ern­ment, Ameen said the PNM has put off Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions be­cause they are afraid to face the polls.

“And right­ly so, they know the elec­torate is dis­sat­is­fied.”

She said cit­i­zens are liv­ing in fear of ris­ing crime and mur­ders, high un­em­ploy­ment, poor roads, flood­ing, in­ad­e­quate wa­ter sup­ply and a fail­ing econ­o­my.

Every­thing, she said, is falling apart.

Ameen point­ed out that there are many ar­eas in lo­cal gov­ern­ment where the PNM has failed to de­liv­er.

The hir­ing of 100 mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers for each of the 14 re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions was one of the 2019 promis­es they have not been de­liv­ered.

“That is a to­tal of 1,400 of­fi­cers. They have failed to do that, in the time frame they have promised us they would do. And now they are com­ing to tell us that they hired about 500 (of­fi­cers).”

She said the Gov­ern­ment will now come to tell the coun­try that they will pro­vide jobs for lit­ter war­dens.

Ameen said this was iron­ic be­cause when they as­sumed of­fice in 2015 they fired all the lit­ter war­dens. Even the promise of lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form nev­er ma­te­ri­alised.

“All of these are rea­sons why the PNM is afraid to face the elec­tion,” she said.

She said the Gov­ern­ment knows the elec­torate is wait­ing to vote them out.