OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) mem­bers and sup­port­ers are de­mand­ing im­me­di­ate elec­tions, con­demn­ing the ap­point­ment of a new Prime Min­is­ter and Cab­i­net min­is­ters with­out cit­i­zens hav­ing a say.

Yes­ter­day, just over a hand­ful of sup­port­ers lined the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah walk­way op­po­site the Pres­i­dent’s House, hold­ing plac­ards and call­ing for the gen­er­al elec­tion date to be an­nounced.

The protest oc­curred while Stu­art Young was be­ing sworn in as Prime Min­is­ter and Camille Robin­son-Reg­is tak­ing the oath as the coun­try’s new At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, tem­po­rary Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Do­minic Alexan­der Smith said, “We are here be­cause we be­lieve that the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the peo­ple is a fun­da­men­tal part of the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process, and we must be heard. The demon­stra­tion be­hind us at the Pres­i­dent’s House rep­re­sents the modus operan­di of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment—one that takes a high-hand­ed ap­proach to gov­er­nance.

“We stand here in a silent, de­cent protest, let­ting the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go know that in the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, you have a voice and a cham­pi­on against all that op­pose the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process and the prin­ci­ples of good gov­er­nance.”

The UNC has been ques­tion­ing the le­gal­i­ty of Young’s ap­point­ment as Prime Min­is­ter, even threat­en­ing le­gal ac­tion based on yes­ter­day’s pro­ceed­ings.

How­ev­er, Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo put any con­cerns to rest in a state­ment yes­ter­day, where she said that based on her judge­ment and con­sid­er­ing the let­ters from 21 mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and from Young him­self, he was will­ing to ac­cept the of­fice of Prime Min­is­ter.

How­ev­er, UNC sup­port­ers were not con­vinced.

Sup­port­er and at­tor­ney-at-law Bri­an Baig in­sist­ed that the elec­tion date should be called to put an end to any con­sti­tu­tion­al am­bi­gu­i­ty and for cit­i­zens to have their say.

He stat­ed, “This is an in­sult to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment has ba­si­cal­ly said they don’t need the peo­ple to form a gov­ern­ment—they can do it on their own. This is wrong. We are call­ing on this gov­ern­ment to call a gen­er­al elec­tion to­day. Name the date to­day.

“We are in an elec­tion year. This is ridicu­lous. The peo­ple who came out here to­day from var­i­ous parts of the coun­try are say­ing to this gov­ern­ment: this is not a gov­ern­ment in their name, in our name, or in the peo­ple’s name be­cause the peo­ple did not elect this gov­ern­ment.”

Af­ter the swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny, the pro­test­ers dis­persed from out­side the Pres­i­dent’s House.

Op­po­si­tion Leader, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar did not at­tend the swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny as she made good on her promise not to be there.