Local Govt Bill passed in House, but

Prime Minister Patrick Manning, fresh from his St Kitts trip yesterday, was forced to intervene in the debate on an amendment to the Municipal Corporations Act in the Lower House because he just “couldn’t leave a number of things Opposition Fyzabad MP, Chandresh Sharma said, unattended.”

However, Manning’s appeal to support what he called a “simple amendment” did not prevent the Opposition from rejecting it outright, even though the bill was already passed in the Senate the previous day.

A clause in the bill states that councillors shall elect new aldermen, but the Government’s amendment seeks to delete the word “new”, only to allow councillors maximum flexibility to either retain existing aldermen, or appoint new ones, the PM said.

Sharma, in his contribution earlier, had recalled that the same controversy had arisen several times in previous years and, in the end, the term of office of all members of the corporations was extended.

However, Manning pointed out that, at least on one occasion, it was not so, and he noted, “It doesn’t mean that if it happened before, it’s the only course available.”

Refuting the Opposition’s argument that the bill was seeking to have the results of an election without an election, the PM further noted, “Mr Speaker, all an election does is elect councillors. If it is said we are postponing the elections, we are only postponing the election of councillors.

“We are treating with this matter in the classic way it ought to be treated, in terms of the legislative framework within which local government bodies operate. All we are asking the honourable members to do is agree.”

But Couva South MP, Kelvin Ramnath, rose to the Opposition’s rescue.

Dismissing Manning’s invitation to agree with the amendment, he charged that the whole purpose of the Government’s amendment is to seize control of the Rio Claro/Mayaro Regional Corporation, now controlled by the UNC.

Ramnath said that corporation was targeted because there was a draw between the PNM and the UNC for selecting the alderman.

He said the new Mayaro Princes Town seats are served by the corporation.

“The Government knows that if the situation is not remedied, they would not be able to use the corporation to carry out the work they plan to do for the next general election. Mr Speaker, this is nothing but an attempt to give the PNM a second chance!”

After the desk-thumping from his colleagues died down, Ramnath continued, “The Government is extremely worried about these marginal areas. They know that without the support of certain corporations they can’t provide funding for that area. They know that under no condition they will win the Mayaro and Princes Town seats in another election.

“The victory is ours!” Ramnath shouted, as if starting the UNC’s election campaign.

And when Local Government Minister Rennie Dumas moved that the amendment be supported, those on the Government side said, “Aye”, but those on the Opposition benches shouted, “No! No!”