Rowley: Proportional Representation might be repealed

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley expressed his disdain for the system introduced in 2013, while speaking at a PNM public meeting at Market Square, Point Fortin on Wednesday night, and said that the government is considering repealing the system.

“It was not genuinely any reform,” Rowley said.

“What it was, it was an attempt to use their arrangements to benefit a political party that might have not gotten any seat on a corporation. But at the time that they did that, they were afraid they would get no seat in Point Fortin, no seat in Diego Martin, no seat in Arima and so on.” The proportional representation system, introduced for the first time in the country’s history in 2013, allocated aldermen to regional corporations based on the number of votes earned in the election.

For a party to have one alderman, the party needed to earn at least 25 percent of the votes.

Rowley said that the system was implemented so that the Partnership could increase their chances of having a representative in the corporation through whom they could work.

“The existing law says that once the corporation ends and even before it ends, the minister controls local government and the minister controls the corporation and if they had got one alderman in Diego Martin, the Minister would have controlled the Diego Martin Corporation.

“If they had gotten one alderman in Point Fortin, it was their intention that the Minister would control the corporation even though the PNM had all the seats. That was their intention, you know?” But we have noted that intention and therefore it looks very likely, on consideration, that we are going to repeal that piece of foolishness.” The PNM political leader also said that the law which demanded that persons being considered as aldermen have their names listed and published before the elections, was intended to let the public know who aldermen were but actually caused “unnecessary confusion”.

“You know our people. We feel a-how very easily. So if I ask you to put your name on the list because I think you would be a good alderman in the borough, and you go in there with six, five other people, and they choose four and the other two were not chosen, they feel hard done by and of course some might even get angry. You create discord.” Despite the legislative changes, said Rowley, the PP still failed in their plan to win aldermen in Arima, Point Fortin and Arima.

“So the system failed. Their nefarious intention failed and I am sure that on November 28, when you come out to vote, the existing arrangements would not allow them to get any aldermen either.” In response, former Works and Infrastructure Minister, Surujrattan Rambachan, told Newsday, “That mechanism that was proposed by us was done so that we can have more people represented at local government and particularly the interest of minority parties who are often excluded from representation at local government.” Rambachan, the Member of Parliament for Tabaquite, added, “The fact that the prime minister cannot understand the philosophy of such an important piece of legislation that advances democracy and the opportunity for participation of the greatest number of people in the political process is regrettable.” He accused the PNM of being backward in still wanting to have a winner take all system.