Government says 'administrative error' blamed for late EBC report

St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen has complained that since June 2021 the Government had not laid in Parliament a vital report on boundaries expected in the next local government elections.

In a motion on the adjournment of the House of Representatives on Friday, she blamed Minister of Rural Affairs and Local Government Kazim Hosein for the delay.

Ameen said the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) had produced a report last June and the Opposition had information that Hosein had been received since then.

In response, House leader Camille Robinson-Regis, in reply on behalf of Hosein, blamed the delay on an administrative error. She said Ameen had been notified of the error but maintained her motion.

"There was an administrative error," Robinson-Regis said. She said this was no fault of Hosein, having earlier said that MPs in the debate should not refer to parliamentary staff.

Expressing her displeasure, she accused Ameen of trying to mislead the House and alleged she was totally dishonest.

Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George rose to say she was "really disappointed" in Ameen.

Ameen recalled a past PNM government having delayed the local government elections successively in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 – under former prime minister the late Patrick Manning – with polls being held after Kamla Persad-Bissessar's ascension to the prime minister's office in 2010.

Ameen said the PNM had used its simple majority to deny the population the right to vote, but the UNC had ultimately won 10 out of 14 municipal corporations in the 2010 local elections.

"Under this PNM the same thing seems to be happening again," Ameen claimed.

She said the Government had only called by-elections in Barataria and Belmont in 2018 under a threat of legal action by the UNC.

Likewise, Monday's by-election in Debe South was also the result of a UNC threat of legal action.

Ameen queried why would the PNM not publicise the new EBC report on local government boundaries, asking if this was due to a lack of interest or due to a wish to wilfully suppress democracy.

She recalled that last Monday Persad-Bissessar had vowed to take legal action against Hosein to order for the report be bought to Parliament. Ameen said last Monday she had filed her motion on the adjournment although the report was subsequently listed on a supplemental order paper.

She said the EBC had informed her it had sent the report to Hosein last June.