AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

At least two Op­po­si­tion mem­bers are call­ing for the res­ig­na­tion of In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors fol­low­ing the swear­ing-in of new Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo on Mon­day.

Fol­low­ing Mon­day’s in­au­gu­ra­tion, dis­cus­sions in some quar­ters have emerged over whether or not the nine sit­ting In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors ap­point­ed dur­ing the reign of for­mer pres­i­dent Paula Mae-Weekes should re­sign.

How­ev­er, there is no es­tab­lished prac­tice that re­quires In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors to ten­der their res­ig­na­tion up­on the en­try of a new Pres­i­dent. In fact, ac­cord­ing to sec­tions 39-45 of the Con­sti­tu­tion, sen­a­tor va­cate their seats in the Sen­ate at the next dis­so­lu­tion of Par­lia­ment af­ter their ap­point­ment. As such, the cy­cle fol­lows a Par­lia­men­tary term and not a Pres­i­dent’s term in of­fice.

The cur­rent In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors are Paul Richards, Hazel Thomp­son-Ahye, An­tho­ny Vieira, Am­ri­ta De­onar­ine, Maria Dil­lon-Re­my, Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh, Char­rise Seep­er­sad, Evans Welch and De­oroop Teemal.

How­ev­er, Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath yes­ter­day said he had very lit­tle faith in the cur­rent In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors, since he be­lieves that they are "far from in­de­pen­dent."

He said he had al­so ques­tioned the le­git­i­ma­cy of In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors be­ing a part of the Elec­toral Col­lege who vot­ed to elect a new Pres­i­dent in Jan­u­ary.

“I be­lieve that the In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors, they were in a very pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion in terms of vot­ing in the Elec­toral Col­lege, know­ing that they will be be­hold­en to some­one who was the Sen­ate Pres­i­dent while they served as In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors. So, I think they should have re­signed be­fore par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Elec­toral Col­lege,” Padarath told Guardian Me­dia.

Cou­va South MP Rudy In­dars­ingh mean­while said al­though Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo said she plans to be open to all, that is to still be seen.

“A lot of pres­i­dents in the past have said many things in their in­au­gur­al speech and when you drill down, they dis­ap­pear. They be­come dis­con­nect­ed from the pub­lic, they be­come dis­con­nect­ed from re­al­i­ty,” In­dars­ingh said.