Joshua Seemu­n­gal

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) says Gov­ern­ment must an­nounce the date for the next lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion by this morn­ing be­cause coun­cil­lors and al­der­men re­port­ing to du­ty will be oc­cu­py­ing their of­fices il­le­gal­ly.

At a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Wade Mark and Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal de­scribed Gov­ern­ment’s at­tempt to ex­tend the terms of lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives by a year as “a naked, brazen and ug­ly abuse of pow­er” and ac­cused them of at­tempt­ing to hi­jack democ­ra­cy.

“Even be­fore the op­po­si­tion had a press con­fer­ence this morn­ing, the gov­ern­ment should have ad­dressed this coun­try al­ready. In fact, Dr Row­ley and or Mr Ar­mour should ad­dress this coun­try by sun­set to­day, Sun­day, and in­di­cate what is hap­pen­ing to­mor­row,” Mooni­lal said.

“The rule of law has been frac­tured and we are now in a po­lit­i­cal quick­sand. They have de­stroyed lo­cal gov­ern­ment sys­tems in Trinidad and To­ba­go be­cause of their in­com­pe­tence, cor­rup­tion, and their lack of ef­fec­tive­ness. You could have a coun­try here where no garbage can could be emp­tied tonight be­cause of the break­down of lo­cal gov­ern­ment.”

Ac­cord­ing to the Op­po­si­tion MP, Gov­ern­ment is out of op­tions and their backs are against the wall. The on­ly op­tion is to an­nounce the elec­tion date and do some le­gal work to val­i­date the work of coun­cil­lors and al­der­men up to May 18.

“PNM coun­cil­lors and al­der­men, you can­not use a pen be­long­ing to Trinidad and To­ba­go. You are out. You are out. The gov­ern­ment has gone in­to hid­ing and their coun­cil­lors are break­ing the law to­mor­row morn­ing,” Mooni­lal added.

Mark said coun­cil­lors and al­der­men who re­port to their var­i­ous mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions to­day will do so il­le­gal­ly fol­low­ing last week’s Privy Coun­cil rul­ing which struck down Gov­ern­ment’s one-year ex­ten­sion of the cur­rent lo­cal gov­ern­ment term. He said the on­ly thing left for Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to do is to an­nounce a date for the elec­tions.

“Let me give you a warn­ing. Do not come to the Par­lia­ment with any law ex­tend­ing the elec­tion time. The elec­tions must be called now. You have al­ready kid­napped the rights of the peo­ple and sub­sti­tut­ed you and your gang in the Cab­i­net as their rep­re­sen­ta­tives,” he warned.

Mark al­so told Kel­ly Vil­lage/War­renville coun­cil­lor Samuel Sankar, who re­cent­ly re­signed from the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress to serve the rest of his term as an in­de­pen­dent coun­cil­lor, that his term end­ed on De­cem­ber 3. He said all lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ terms end­ed when the three-year term ex­pired last year. Gov­ern­ment had up to March 3 to hold the elec­tions.

He ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of hid­ing its true in­tent when it brought the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form) Bill 2020 be­fore Par­lia­ment. He claimed Gov­ern­ment nev­er once made it clear to the Op­po­si­tion, and by ex­ten­sion, the pub­lic, that it in­tend­ed to post­pone the lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions by a year.

“They al­lo­cat­ed to them­selves the pow­er to elect the peo­ple’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives . . . There is a well-es­tab­lished con­sti­tu­tion­al prin­ci­ple that says on­ly the peo­ple can elect their rep­re­sen­ta­tives,” he said.

“A democ­ra­cy can­not ex­ist with­out the peo­ple hav­ing the right to elect their own rep­re­sen­ta­tives. For six months, start­ing on De­cem­ber 3, and con­tin­u­ing to­day, six months, Row­ley and his gang have kid­napped and hi­jacked your right to vote in Trinidad and To­ba­go. That is trea­son. That is a crime against the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. This is a cri­sis!”

Mark called on the Gov­ern­ment to dis­solve all cor­po­ra­tions im­me­di­ate­ly and warned Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his Cab­i­net not to bring leg­is­la­tion seek­ing to ex­tend the elec­tions.

The UNC’s call for elec­tions comes af­ter the Privy Coun­cil in­val­i­dat­ed the gov­ern­ment’s at­tempt to ex­tend the term of lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives by a year.

On May 18, in a ma­jor­i­ty rul­ing, three UK law lords said High Court Judge Jacque­line Wil­son and the Court of Ap­peal got it wrong when they dis­missed a law­suit filed by Op­po­si­tion ac­tivist Ravi Bal­go­b­in-Ma­haraj.

The rul­ing found that the change in the term of lo­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tives pre­scribed in the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form) Act, which was passed in Par­lia­ment with­out Op­po­si­tion sup­port, could not ap­ply to rep­re­sen­ta­tives elect­ed for a three-year term in 2019.

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions were orig­i­nal­ly due be­tween De­cem­ber 4 and March 4, but fol­low­ing the par­tial procla­ma­tion of lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form leg­is­la­tion, Gov­ern­ment pro­posed that the elec­tion be held a year lat­er.