More crime in Parliament this week

The House of Representatives will debate the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill when it sits on Friday at Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre at 1.30 pm. Last Friday, the Opposition refused to support the passage of the Anti-Gang Bill 2017. Government and the Opposition have since blamed each other for the bill’s failure. The Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs released the details of how each clause of the bill was voted on during the committee stage in the House, last Wednesday and Thursday.

The list shows Government and Opposition MPs who were present, voted for all the existing clauses and amendments that were proposed by the Government. The records show there was consideration between the Government’s proposal for a sunset clause to be set at five years while the Opposition proposed the clause last 18 months. The records also show the Opposition did not object to the sunset clause being set at two years, when the amendment was put to the vote at committee stage. The bill could return to Parliament through the Senate, where Government could try to obtain the required three-fifths majority support for the bill from the nine Independent senators or the six Opposition senators. In the Senate, a three fifths majority means 19 votes. Government has 15 senators in the Senate.

Comments

"More crime in Parliament this week"

More in this section