UNC Walks Out of Parliament

By Sue-Ann Wayow

THE Opposition walked out on a Parliamentary session on Tuesday because Prime Minster Dr Keith Rowley speaking time was extended to two hours.

“A flagrant breach of the practice and the procedure of the Parliament” was how Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar described the move.

Led by Persad-Bissessar, the Opposition Members of Parliament walked out in the latter session of Parliament as the Tobago Self-Government Bill was being debated and Dr Rowley was supposed to be rounding off the session.

Speaking to the media outside the Parliament, Persad-Bissessar said it was unfair that the extension was granted by House Speaker Brigid Annisette-George.

She said that in the middle of  a lockdown when all other speakers times were reduced, Dr Rowley was allowed to speak for the longest period.

While the Opposition did not have much issues with the amended speaking times addressed in the House of Representatives the day before, she said, “ The last straw came today when the Prime Minister who seems mortally afraid of speaking and allowing a member of the Opposition to speak after him that he usurps the role of the move of the motion because he would have been the person to close the debate. He usurped that role using a standing order.”

“ After the Prime Minister finishes one hour which was a breach of the Standing Orders, he got up and moved an extension for another 60 minutes clearly in breach of their  own notion  to allow the Prime Minister to speak for two hours,” she said.

Persad-Bissessar added that the Government led by Dr Rowley was attempting to bully the Opposition in the same manner in which the people of Tobago was being bullied to accept their amendments to the Bill.