KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Wade Mark says coun­cil­lors and al­der­men who re­port to their var­i­ous mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions will do so il­le­gal­ly, fol­low­ing last week's Privy Coun­cil rul­ing strik­ing down Gov­ern­ment's one-year ex­ten­sion of the cur­rent lo­cal gov­ern­ment term.

Speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence at the Of­fice of the Op­po­si­tion Leader in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, Mark said the on­ly thing left for Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is to an­nounce a date for the lo­cal gov­ern­ment 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," Mark said.

He 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. Mark 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.

Par­lia­ment passed the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form) Act 2020 to ex­tend the tenure of all coun­cil­lors and al­der­men last No­vem­ber. Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Faris Al Rawi said this ex­tra year would al­low for the roll­out of the lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form.

Mark said the Gov­ern­ment nev­er told Par­lia­ment the in­ten­tion was to ex­tend rep­re­sen­ta­tives' terms, adding that the Op­po­si­tion did not sup­port it.

"The PNM de­ceived, ma­nip­u­lat­ed and mis­led not on­ly the Par­lia­ment but the peo­ple of the Re­pub­lic and Trinidad & To­ba­go. At no time did the PNM tell the peo­ple that the in­ten­tion of that pro­vi­sion was to ex­tend the term by one year of ex­ist­ing coun­cil­lors and al­der­men," Mark said.

But in a le­gal ac­tion brought by po­lit­i­cal ac­tivist Ravi Bal­go­b­in, the Privy Coun­cil ruled that the change in the term con­tained in the Act could not ap­ply to rep­re­sen­ta­tives elect­ed for a three-year term in 2019. It said the Par­lia­ment should have used un­am­bigu­ous lan­guage to in­di­cate its in­tent. The Privy Coun­cil high­light­ed the im­por­tance of elec­tions in a rep­re­sen­ta­tive democ­ra­cy. It said the right to vote out rep­re­sen­ta­tives is as im­por­tant as vot­ing in rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Mark said by ex­tend­ing the term, Gov­ern­ment chose who would rep­re­sent the peo­ple and took away cit­i­zens' con­sti­tu­tion­al rights for the past six months.

"There is a well-es­tab­lished con­sti­tu­tion­al prin­ci­ple that says on­ly the peo­ple can elect their rep­re­sen­ta­tives. We have a lo­cal Pa­pa Doc Du­va­lier in the per­sona of the cur­rent Prime Min­is­ter.”

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said Row­ley should have ad­dressed the coun­try, hav­ing de­stroyed lo­cal gov­ern­ment sys­tems. He said Gov­ern­ment has to val­i­date de­ci­sions tak­en on be­half of the var­i­ous re­gion­al, bor­ough and city cor­po­ra­tions as coun­cil­lors and al­der­men op­er­at­ed il­le­gal­ly over the past six months. These in­clude award­ing of con­tracts and pay­ments to con­trac­tors.

Mooni­lal said At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour played a co­me­di­an in his re­sponse to the Privy Coun­cil rul­ing. He said Ar­mour was us­ing the foot­ball for­mu­la of ac­cu­mu­lat­ing goals from home and away ties to de­ter­mine how many judges, lo­cal­ly and in Eng­land, favoured Gov­ern­ment's ac­tion. He said Ar­mour should re­turn his silk for the le­gal ad­vice he gave to Cab­i­net.