WITH no further advice from Government since last Thursday’s Privy Council ruling that the one-year extension of local government terms was illegal, the United National Congress (UNC) is drafting another pre-action protocol letter to the Prime Minister demanding he call the elections now.
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar made the announcement before a lively audience which included front-row spectator Ravi Balgobin Maharaj, who legally challenged the extension, at Naparima College, San Fernando, on Monday night.
“Lawyers are helping me, right now, to draft a pre-action protocol letter to Keith Christopher Rowley, to call the election now.
“I will give you (Rowley) a few days and if you do not respond, we (will) have 'legal luminary' Ravi Balgobin-Maharaj take you back to court and demand that elections be held.”
With local government bodies “in a state of perpetual limbo," she said, "The government must inform the nation how it intends to rectify the situation they put us in and how soon they will deal with this problem.”
The most important question is: “When is the date of the election?
“Members of the Cabinet have been treating the population as fools. They are playing with words. They are intentionally being vague and evasive.”
Persad-Bissessar argued, “In my respectful view, the offices of councillors and aldermen are currently vacant. They (offices) expired in December last year.”
She warned councillors and aldermen who usually vote on projects and make financial decisions: “Don’t do nothing, or you will be held personally liable for acting illegally. Your office expired in December last year. Understand that.”
Saying the amendments to the Municipal Corporation Act were initially flawed, Persad-Bissessar anticipates government returning to Parliament to validate what councillors are doing during this period, “to try to say you are still alive.
“The only time a dead man came alive was 2,000 years ago when there was the Resurrection. That same great man also raised a dead man called Lazarus," she said, in a reference to the Bible.
“Whatever bill they bring to the Parliament must not be a Lazarus bill to raise the dead again. They must come good, because we will take them to court again.”
She boasted that the Privy Council ruling made legal history not only in TT, but in the Commonwealth.
“This will set a legal precedent in the 54 Commonwealth nations. It is a landmark for democracy, and I want to congratulate the law lords, who don’t often overturn the decision of the lower courts. They had the belly and some other parts (that) were strong enough to do so.”
Showing a map of Trinidad after the last local government elections, with her party’s yellow as the dominant colour, she declared, “We are winners. We are strong. We are proud.
" San Fernando, do the right thing. Let’s run them out of town. Vote them out.”
At the meeting, which former senator Sean Sobers said was the launch of the election campaign, he was optimistic the UNC would seize control and instal a UNC mayor.
