Rowley: Let Tobago move on

THE Prime Minister on Friday said Tobago must be allowed to move on from the current six-six deadlock in the recent Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election. This will be done according to law, Dr Rowley said. He was in the House of Representatives, piloting a bill to increase the seats in the THA from 12 to 15, the Tobago House of Assembly (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

"It falls on me as Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago to change the law, so Tobago can move on," Rowley said.

Repeatedly emphasising the phrase "the law", he recalled all done so far in the THA to resolve the tie, without success, and said other ideas for resolution fell outside of the law.

While it fell only on the 12 assemblymen to elect a presiding officer to then help constitute an assembly, they had been unable to do so.

He related that in line with the law - the Tobago House of Assembly Act 1996 - the THA clerk had three times tried to get assemblymen to elect a presiding officer but was unable to break the six-six deadlock.

"Some people have referred to the instances of using the popular vote but there is no law acknowledging that.

"Some people require they remain in the place until they get tired and want to go to the bathroom and then who goes first might take part in the election and so on. But none of those things is covered in the law." Rowley said the THA remains dissolved and has ceased to function until a new assembly is constituted.

Rowley emphasised that he is not PM of the THA nor of Trinidad but rather the PM of Trinidad and Tobago, although later saying he plays no role on what happens inside the THA.

"If there is no resolution...If that 'until a person gets a majority' is not acquired in Tobago, it simply means the Tobago House of Assembly will stand dissolved for the next four years.

"'They will meet there from time to time and Big Six' and 'Little Six' will compare against one another to see who is big six and who is little six, because six is six and it is six on one side and six on the other side. The assembly is deadlocked."

The PM said that under the existing law, after each nominee for presiding officer is rejected by deadlock, the clerk must return with fresh nominees "ad nauseum" (that is, until one is sick) until someone earns a majority of votes. The clerk can set reasonable times with the parties to return to the chamber, and if still deadlocked, adjourn, suspend and continue, the PM explained.

On the suggestion to go elsewhere outside of the THA to get a solution, a seeming reference to calls to adopt the House's standing order's, he said he did not get such advice, among the "high-quality legal advice" he had received.

"I am following the senior counsel's advice that I have that the clerk and the process cannot leave the assembly and go anywhere else because the law says the clerk is required to continue doing this until one of the person's nominated gets a majority and that majority can only be had from the votes of the 12 people who are already sworn in as the assembly.

With the THA now dissolved, some people had told him to leave it as such while others have said grant Tobago self-government, but neither of these measures was the law, Rowley said.

For the THA's business to be done just by its executive council, as provided for by the law at present, was not the best arrangement for Tobago, he opined.

"It takes a law to change a law." He said the law as it now stands provides no route for a majority to be had in the THA to elect a presiding officer.

"It falls to me as Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago to change the law, so that the law will give provision for Tobago to move on and have the elected members who have been sworn in to have a properly constituted assembly."

Rowley said a rerun of the THA election with the same 12 sets could likely give the same result.

"However, we have been spared that by consultation that took place in Tobago over a two year period, on a matter which was broader than this problem."

He said unlike the TT Parliament for which the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) suggests a number of seats to be approved or rejected by Parliament, the THA Act states the number of seats to be in the assembly. In line with recommendations from consultations in Tobago, now before a joint select committee, he vowed to amend the THA Act for have 15 seats.

The EBC Act must be amended to reflect all this, he added. The EBC will have to make arrangements to establish 15 seats.

"The EBC under law is required to put a report to Parliament on this and similar situations two years after an election. So if we don't amend the Election and Boundaries Act, it will be two years before the commission can report to this House and there can be no return to the polls until a report like that is adopted in this House to go back to the polls."

He said the bill should specify the election be held within 2-3 months, to allow certain things to happen and comply with the law.

"So it limits the period of transition we are talking about. It limits the interregnum in which the assembly stands dissolved.

"It tells us exactly when this deadlock will come to an end in Tobago."