Introspection needed by UNC

THE EDITOR: Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar should hold her hand on any further no-confidence motions until there is an internal investigation within her party to determine how the UNC got it so wrong on its motion against the President.

Was she misled by the lawyers on her parliamentary team? Or did she ignore their advice? Is it that her legal team was asleep on the job? Or, God forbid, was it a deliberate move to make her look incompetent and unfit to be a potential leader of this country?

Whatever the internal machinations, Persad-Bissessar and her hapless MPs were caught flat-footed by the Speaker, who obviously studied the Constitution and took good legal and parliamentary advice.

Let it be known that our Parliament staff, headed by House Clerk Jacqui Sampson-Meiguel, who is also a lawyer, is one of the most experienced in the Commonwealth. It has been my experience that Jacqui’s advice was always reliable.

Apparently, neither Persad-Bissessar nor her MPs fully understood their own motion.

This was not a motion of censure of the President. It was a motion to remove the President from office. A motion of censure will not involve the Electoral College and could be dealt with in a debate, once approved by the Speaker.

On the other hand, a motion to remove the President from office involves specific procedures laid out in the Constitution which had been scrupulously followed by the Speaker last Thursday.

Why did the UNC legal team, headed by a leader who is a senior counsel, ignore the provisions laid down in the Constitution in dealing with their own motion? That is what Persad-Bissessar must now find out and deal with.

Perhaps the UNC discovered their mistake on the way to Parliament last Thursday and therefore decided to cover their incompetence by mob behaviour. It may have been a strategy to force the Speaker to put them out and trigger a walkout, as was stated by the Prime Minister at his media conference after the sitting of the Electoral College last Thursday.

Can we trust this group of people with political power again?

HARRY PARTAP

FMR UNC MP

TABLELAND