By FRANCIS JOSEPH
Another late sitting!
After close to nine hours of debate, the Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill 2026 was passed 27-11 in the House of Representatives on Wednesday night.
The Bill now heads to the Senate next Tuesday where interestingly, the public awaits the outcome and the voting.
In the last two of three bills debated, President of the Senate Wade Mark had to use his casting vote in favour of the Government to break a 15-15 deadlock.
Before the House of Representatives was an Act to amend the Municipal Corporations Act, Chap. 25:04 to establish the City of Chaguanas, and the Boroughs of Barataria, Couva, St. Augustine, and Sangre Grande.
Khadijah Ameen, Minister of Rural Development and Local Government kicked off the debate.
She was followed by Colm Imbert, Saddam Hosein, Kareem Marcelle, Joel Sampson, from Tobago, Stuart Young SC, Jearlean John, Brian Manning, Vandana Mohit, Opposition Leader, Pennelope Beckles-Robinson, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC, with Ameen winding up the debate.
The House went into committee stage and amendments were approved.
Then the voting took place and 27 voted in favour and 11 against. Tobago East MP David Thomas was absent for the debate. Missing at the vote were Opposition MPs Camille Robinson-Regis and Hans Des Vignes.
The House was then adjourned to Monday when Minister of Finance, Dave Tancoo, will present the 2026-2027 Budget.
PNM IN CAHOOTS WITH EBC
During his contribution to the debate, Tobago West Member of Parliament, Joel Sampson, accused the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) of being in cahoots with the Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM).
While acknowledging that the EBC is constitutionally independent, Sampson said Tobago’s electoral history had led him to a different political conclusion.
He added, “I have watched what has happened in Tobago. I have looked at the history. I have looked at the timing. I have looked at the patterns. And I am entitled to form a political judgment based upon what I have seen. And my political judgment is this, I believe that the EBC has been in cahoots with the PNM.”
Sampson said he based much of his argument on the aftermath of the January 2021 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections, which ended in a 6-6 tie between the PNM and Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP). Parliament subsequently amended the law to increase the number of THA electoral districts from 12 to 15.
Thereafter, the PDP won 14-1 and earlier this year, the Tobago People’s Party (TPP), the breakaway from the PDP, won 15-0.
The Tobago West MP questioned why three additional seats were required to break the possibility of another tie instead of one, arguing that all three new districts were created from geographical areas represented by the PNM.
Sampson said, “The six PNM-held districts became the geographical source from which nine districts were produced. None of the three new seats was created out of a PDP-held seats.”
He went back to the period ahead of the 2005 THA elections, citing complaints raised in Parliament at the time that an EBC report had allegedly been circulating within the PNM before it was formally laid.
