Scotland, Ameen wrangle as Tobago electoral boundaries shift

Rural Development and Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen speaks in the House of Representatives on Friday. PHOTO BY AYANNA KINSALE - Ayanna Kinsale

Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland has chastised the government for waiting until "the 11th hour" to lay before Parliament the Draft EBC Local Boundaries and Tobago Order 2025, to adjust the boundaries of two electoral districts in Tobago and change their names.

The EBC report was submitted to Minster of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen on August 29, and has recommended the Bagatelle/Bacolet and Mason Hall/Moriah districts be changed to Mason Hall South/Bagatelle and Mason Hall North/Moriah.

The order was passed in the House of the Representatives.

THA Deputy Chief Secretary Dr Faith Brebnor on December 5 described the changes as minor.

During debate in the House of Representatives on December 5, Scotland questioned why it took the government more than three months to bring the order before Parliament.

Speaking earlier, Ameen said the government found serious discrepancies with the report and held meetings with the EBC to iron out a number of kinks. She said 29 errors were identified and 440 misplaced addresses needed to be fixed.

"In the UNC, we are vanguards for democracy. We have always taken an interest in ensuing the EBC operates with transparency and fairness. Our committee examined the report and there were a number of areas of concern....

"I communicated with the chief elections officer and on Monday, November 3 we had a meeting."

She said the government has a duty to ensure that the report brought before Parliament was one of integrity.

But Scotland challenged Ameen saying she was bound by Section 72 (3) of the Constitution to submit the report at her earliest convenience even if there were issues that needed to be dealt with. He said the discussions could have still taken place after laying the order.

Quoting the Constitution, he said, "As soon as may be after the Commission has submitted a report under this section, the minister designated by the President for that purpose shall lay the report before the House of Representatives and the President shall by Order published in the Gazette make provision for giving effect, whether with or without modifications, to the recommendations contained in the report."

Scotland said, "This bill has come like a thief in the night, just like the radar installed at the international airport in Tobago."

Opposition MP Saddam Hosein questioned the relevance of the analogy

"I think it was just a passing reference," Speaker Jagdeo Singh said.

Scotland continued, "Thank you, Mr speaker."

He then threw a jab at Hosein, "Sit down, go back to Bahrain," referring to the minister's recent trip to promote the government's Revitalisation Blueprint.

Scotland said Ameen was only raising "excuse after excuse" as to why the order was not laid in Parliament.

"We had to meet with this one. we had to meet with that one.

"Tobago East and West, I hope they met with you. I hope in their meetings that you were on their radar," he said.

Scotland said the order was only laid on December 4 because of "pure necessity" as "if it is not passed by midnight tonight, the law says they cannot use the recommendations of this report for the upcoming THA elections."

He cautioned Tobagonians to be wary and queried why the Opposition Leader was not consulted.

Although questioning Ameen for not bringing the order to Parliament sooner, Scotland also pressed the EBC.

He asked why if there was one boundary adjustment and a transferring of polling division 4948 that it resulted in two district name changes.

"We want clarity," he said.

Scotland also queried why in districts with larger demographic shifts there were no name changes. He said the inconsistency needed to be explained.

Responding to Scotland, Ameen said his concerns about the EBC were reinforcing what she said about the EBC report being problematic.

"He chastised the government for taking time for addressing serious errors with the EBC, but he himself was raising more issues that should have been addressed by the EBC. He is supporting my point, he is supporting the government's position."

She said Scotland was also being hypocritical, as she listed a number of instances when the PNM did not immediately submit to Parliament an EBC report.

"I want to remind you that it was the PNM in government who refused to bring a report that the EBC sent to Minister Kazim Hosein – a report that was sent to the minster in June 2021 and it was a whole year later....and you know what happened? On UNC Monday Night Forum the then Opposition Leader – now Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar – threatened legal action...

"You know what happened? Wednesday – supplemental order, the report reached, after almost a year. Yuh want to talk about 11 o'clock? Look at your own track record....

"There was another occasion....It is either Port of Spain South is ignorant or lacking knowledge or pure hypocrisy. There are more occasions where PNM has suppressed democracy. When we had that THA report being rushed to Parliament (to break the six-six tie), did the then government consult with the Leader of the Opposition? But now they want to talk about if we consult with the Leader of the Opposition.

"Them cyah come here and talk about we as if we trying to postpone or interfere with election. Everything we did is within the time-frame. It is within the law. We made it our business to scrutinise that report."

Tobago East MP David Thomas in his contribution accused the PNM of trying to influence the last THA elections by changing the electoral boundaries from 12 to 15.

"The first thing the other side has to understand is the government does not do the EBC work. We know after the six-six tie, a concerted effort was made to change the boundaries with the hope that the results would have been different."

He added, "We would have expended a lot of money to educate people and I want them to know that the education was well received. The boundaries were all shifted after the six-six tie. If we were interested in fairness, honesty and a real sense of integrity, there was not anything that caused a necessity to arise for the boundaries to change."

The national electoral districts were changed to an odd number – from 36 to 41 – after an 18-18 tie in the 2001 general election. The Tobago electoral districts were also changed to an odd number following the tie in the January 2021 elections.

Ameen said a change was also likely in local government elections to avoid a stalemate. There was a 7-7 tie in the last local government elections between PNM and UNC.