Cana­di­an Dwayne Gibbs was yes­ter­day ap­proved as this coun­try's new Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice. When the mo­tion was put to a vote in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives short­ly be­fore the ad­journ­ment 25 Gov­ern­ment MPs present vot­ed for Gibbs while the ten Op­po­si­tion MPs ab­stained. A Gov­ern­ment source said the 54-year-old re­tired Chief Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice in Al­ber­ta, Cana­da, is ex­cept­ed to ar­rive in Port-of-Spain short­ly as­sume of­fice.

Gibbs was the sec­ond-ranked can­di­date for the job. The first-ranked Neal Park­er was re­ject­ed when the mat­ter was first raised in Par­lia­ment last week Fri­day. Be­fore Gibbs' ap­proval, Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley in his con­tri­bu­tion to the de­bate raised con­cerns about Gibbs' qual­i­fi­ca­tions. But the Gov­ern­ment did not share his con­cern and pro­ceed­ed to ac­cept Gibbs' can­di­da­cy. Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Brigadier John Sandy said on Thurs­day that he was pre­pared to work with the new Com­mis­sion­er and ex­tend all the re­quired sup­port to en­sure the fight against crime is won. The act­ing ap­point­ment of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice James Philbert is ex­pect to ex­pire short­ly.

Mean­while, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the ex­ist­ing law for the ap­point­ment of a Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er would be re­viewed.

She in­sist­ed that the Par­lia­ment just re­tain a role in the new pro­ce­dure to be agreed up­on. Row­ley said yes­ter­day that the mater should be brought to Par­lia­ment for neg­a­tive res­o­lu­tion. This means that when the rec­om­mend­ed name is sub­mit­ted to the Par­lia­ment it should be ap­proved with­out de­bate un­less some­one had good rea­son to re­quire a de­bate. Row­ley said the law should pro­vide for that per­son to file a mo­tion to de­bate the mat­ter. But the Gov­ern­ment has not re­spond­ed to Row­ley's sug­ges­tion as yet.