By Prior Beharry
THERE will be an Extraordinary Sitting of the House of Representatives on Thursday to deal with a motion for the removal of President Paula-Mae Weekes from office.
It starts at 10.30 am and is the only motion on the Order Paper for the Extraordinary Sitting.
The motion was filed by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar last Friday.
It seeks to invoke Section 36 of the Constitution which allows for a tribunal to be set up consisting of the Chief Justice and four other senior judges to investigate the complaint and report the facts to the House of Representatives.
The motion stated the particulars of the grounds on which the removal is proposed and is signed by all 19 United National Congress (UNC) MPs.
The Constitution states that the motion must be signed by at least one-third of the Members of the Lower House. There are 41 MPs and therefore the Opposition has met that criterion.
According to section 36(1)(c) of the Constitution, the motion needs to be adopted by no less than two-thirds of the total membership of the Upper and Lower Houses. There are 41 MPs in the Lower House and 31 in the Senate.
In the Lower House the ruling Peoples National Movement (PNM) has 22 seats with 19 for the UNC.
In the Senate, the Government has 16 Senators, the Opposition six while there are nine Independent Senators. While the Independent Senators are appointed by the President they are treated as independent and, under Parliamentary tradition, do not take any directions from her.
So it is highly likely that the motion will fail in a vote of the joint sitting of both houses. Two-thirds means 48 members of both Houses which the UNC does not have.
At a press conference on Friday, Persad-Bissessar said while the UNC does not have the majority in Parliament to successfully get the motion through, it will show that the President has lost legitimacy in the eyes of the public.
The motion reads:
MOTION PURSUANT TO SECTION 36 OF THE CONSTITUTION
- WHEREAS section 35 of the Constitution provides that the President may be removed under section 36 from office where she–
(a) willfully violates any provision of the Constitution; and/or
(b) behaves in such a way as to bring her office into hatred, ridicule or contempt and/or
(c) behaves in a way that endangers the security of the State.
AND WHEREAS there have been unrefuted reports:
- a) of recent events at President’s House of interference in the selection processes undertaken by the Police Service Commission (“PSC”); and
- b) that a list of nominees for Commissioner of Police prepared by the PSC was recently submitted to The President and she refused to notify the House of these nominees.
AND WHEREAS The President has neglected to publicly address those reports and has otherwise failed to faithfully execute her several duties under the Constitution.
AND WHEREAS in the circumstances, The President should be removed from office since she:
(a) willfully violated the provisions of the Constitution securing the independence of the PSC in the performance of its functions and also willfully violated section 123 of the Constitution;
(b) behaved in such a way as to bring her office into hatred, ridicule or contempt by interfering and/or facilitating interference with the PSC and also by proceeding in the circumstances to appoint new members of the PSC;
(c) behaved in a way that has resulted in the endangerment of the security of the State through her inactions and/failure and/or neglect to act; and
(d) has otherwise failed and/or neglected to execute her duties under the Constitution.
BE IT NOW RESOLVED THAT pursuant to section 36 of the Constitution, a Tribunal be established to investigate the removal of Her Excellency Paula-Mae Weekes, ORTT from the Office of the President.
