"Un­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic!" That is how the leader of the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots(PDP) Far­ley Au­gus­tine, de­scribes the move by the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)to re­main in of­fice with­out meet­ing to quick­ly re­solve the 6/6 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly's elec­tions' re­sults im­passe.

The two groups met in the As­sem­bly Leg­is­la­ture, Jern­ing­ham Street, Scar­bor­ough, on Jan­u­ary 28 to se­lect a Pre­sid­ing Of­fi­cer so that the As­sem­bly's leg­isla­tive arm could func­tion.

In­stead, they both nom­i­nat­ed and sec­ond­ed two dif­fer­ent per­sons for the post. The PNM se­lect­ed In­grid Melville, while the PDP chose Julien Skeete.

Af­ter vot­ing by se­cret bal­lots and pub­licly twice, there was an im­passe.

Quot­ing from the THA Act #40 of 1996, the Clerk of the As­sem­bly Mer­na McLeod said she was not pre­pared to go fur­ther mat­ter.

How­ev­er, Far­ley, quot­ing too from the Act said it made pro­vi­sion for the na­tion­al con­sti­tu­tion to take over where the THA Act fell short.

The clerk end­ed the ses­sion.

Speak­ing to re­porters af­ter the As­sem­bly ses­sion, Far­ley said the PNM's sug­ges­tion that it re­mains in charge of the ad­min­is­tra­tive arm of the As­sem­bly with­out seek­ing to re­solve the im­passe is "un­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic."

He said the PNM re­ceived on­ly 22 more votes than it did in 2017, while the PDP re­ceived thou­sands more.

He said he in­tends to de­liv­er a le­gal let­ter to the As­sem­bly's clerk to force her to re­con­vene the house and have the elect­ed mem­bers cast bal­lots again.

He said it was "un­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic" for the PNM to con­tin­ue re­main­ing in charge of the is­land's re­sources with­out the leg­isla­tive checks and bal­ances that take place when the As­sem­bly meets.

All 12 mem­bers were sworn-in ear­li­er by Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes at the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Course.

Re­porter: Camille McEach­nie