The United Progressive Party (UPP) takes strong objection to the action of Senate President the Hon. Alincia Williams-Grant, who refused to allow Opposition Leader the Hon. Jamale Pringle to be seated for the Throne Speech this morning.

This expulsion and the further refusal of the President to allow the Senate Minority Leader, the Hon. Chester Hughes, to speak then led to the walk-out of the four Opposition Senators.

It is the considered opinion of this Party that the Senate President’s decision – with the given reason that the Opposition Leader had not yet taken the Oath – was wrong.

It must be noted that MP Pringle had been invited to the sitting in a May 14 letter addressed to “Honourable Member” and signed by the Clerk to Parliament. He was present in good time “for the dispatch of such business as may be necessary” – such as the taking of Oath by a New Member, which is administered by the Clerk.

The President’s move has been described as politically partisan by Senator Hughes, who strongly believes that a Government MP would have been allowed to take the Oath of Office ahead of the Throne Speech.

Further, Hughes notes that the Attorney-General was allowed to speak when he has no primacy in the Upper House, the Senate, while he, the Senate Minority Leader, was refused his right to address the President.

Senator Hughes also points out that Parliament is empowered to make its own rules. Therefore, the rationale tendered – that “this is how it is done in Trinidad and Tobago” – is nonsense.

The United Progressive Party therefore condemns what it sees as collusion between the Senate President and the Government Members of the Lower House in an action designed to embarrass the Opposition Leader and humiliate the Party.

Democracy is under threat, the Opposition Bench concludes.