Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says she has nothing to fear in the forthcoming local government elections as she has done the right thing with respect to the law and her 2010 elections promises. “I’ve said win, lose or draw I will uphold the Constitution and the law and of course my party will do all that it can to win,” Persad-Bissessar said on Friday after opening the Golconda to Debe stretch of the Solomon Hochoy Highway. “That is what parties are for and elections are for, but I go in confidence I have done the right, because it was the right thing to do within the laws of our country, in terms of our promises on the election conversations in May 2010, win, lose or draw we will be ready for all the consequences.”
Responding to Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley’s claim that the Government’s introduction of new legislation on proportional representation for the election was an attempt to improve its chances, she said the new laws will only widen democracy. “That particular amendment does not give any advantage to one party or the other. In fact, it gives every party an advantage that was not there before,” she said. “In my respect, it is not an election ploy. It is something we promised. Now is the time because it is not something you can do after an election. “If we do it after an election it will take us three years before these provisions can become implemented and therefore the timing is right. “Maybe we took too long in terms of three years, but within three years we were able to bring some reform to local government and the electoral process.”
She said in the last decade it was Rowley’s People’s National Movement (PNM) that claimed it was bringing reform but was only postponing local government elections. She said she has not postponed the election although there was more reform to come. However, she said, the changes were important so the Government had decided to implement them before the October 21 election date. On her decision to write to House Speaker Wade Mark over the resignation of St Joseph MP Herbert Volney, hoping to have his seat declared vacant, Persad-Bissessar said the law clearly states that once a member of Parliament resigns from the party he/she contested the election under, the seat should be declared vacant by the House Speaker.
However, she could not say whether a by-election for the St Joseph seat will be held soon, as Mark was out of the country and was yet to receive her letter. Persad-Bissessar said, “As a lawyer myself, I know Section 49 of the Constitution provides in a certain way, where any member of Parliament who contested a seat under a particular party, resigns from the party, there are consequences to follow. “I have looked at those provisions and I have been in discussion with others. I have written to the Speaker. He is out of the country so we will see what happens after.”
While Volney’s seat might be up for grabs, Persad-Bissessar said he has 14 days after the declaration is made to bring legal action. Once an MP’s resignation comes before the Government’s fourth year in office and they do not object to the seat being declared vacant, a by-election should be called. Asked if the country could handle another election, she said “We are working inside of the law, not without the law and therefore if this is what the law provides, I think the country can withstand another election. “When we became MPs and when I became Prime Minister I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the law and that is what I am doing.”