Israel B Rajah-Khan, SC

The status of the President of the Republic of TT is misconceived and thus gravely misunderstood by the Executive (PM and Cabinet), the Judiciary, the entire Parliament and, I dare say, by the Office of the President.

Thus the role and responsibilities of the President are severely restricted and erroneously accepted by the entire country – especially the three benches of government: Executive, Legislative and Judiciary.

It is quite true that our President is not an executive president, but neither is she/he a mere formal ceremonial figurehead like the king of Great Britain.

The President of TT is endowed with great power, status and influence under our Constitution.

Section 39 of the Constitution states that the Parliament shall consist of the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

And of crucial importance, under Section 40 of the Constitution, the Prime Minister selects 16 people for the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition selects six and the President in his own discretion selects nine.

The President's selection of nine people, once appointed to the Senate, are commonly referred to as independent senators. They are independent of the government party whip and the opposition party whip.

It is instructive to note that both the government senators and opposition senators can be removed from the Senate on the respective advice of the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition to the President. And the President can remove her independent Senators on her own discretion and is not accountable to anyone for their removal.

But the independent senators from time immemorial have been operating on their own and not under the guidance, advice and consultation of the President. They are independent of party politics in the Senate. but they are accountable to the President: not the Prime Minister, not the Leader of the Opposition but to the President.

It must be noted that in our liberal democratic state, which in reality is a republic, the government senators debate issues and proposed legislation on behalf of the Government (and vote accordingly on legislation on the instructions of the party whip); and so too the Opposition.

And this brings us to the President’s senators. They debate issues and proposed legislation on whose behalf? Is it the preposterous and ridiculous notion that they do their duty on behalf of themselves – as they have been misled to believe for the past few decades?

It is my considered legal opinion that the nine so-called independent senators are the President’s senators and they must debate issues and vote on proposed legislation in keeping with the President’s instructions. This is the rationale for Section 40 (2) (c) of the Constitution, which is the supreme law of our republic: “nine shall be appointed by the President in his discretion”…

And Section 43 (2) (e) of the Constitution grants her the power to remove any or all of her nine senators on her own discretion.

And because of the gross ignorance of all the prior presid