TRINIDAD-Opposition boycotts prime minister’s question time.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) boycotted the prime minister’s question time in Parliament, saying it refuses to dignify what “has been reduced to a shameful parliamentary charade designed not to promote accountability” but to shield Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar from it.

At the sitting of Parliament on Wednesday, the leader of Government Business, Barry Padarath, told legislators, “For the public record, today’s Prime Minister’s question: the Honorable Prime Minister is in the Chamber; however, we have been advised that the opposition has filed no Prime Minister’s questions.”

Speaker Jagdeo Singh then prevented the opposition chief whip, Marvin Gonzales, from seeking to inform Parliament of the position adopted by the opposition bench.

“Nothing has been said to respond to,” Singh said, adding “let’s move on”.

But in a statement issued afterward, the PNM said Prime Minister’s Questions was introduced into the Standing Orders in 2014, together with Practice Directions, “as an important mechanism through which the Prime Minister could be held directly accountable to the Parliament and, by extension, the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

“That important democratic practice has now been systematically undermined,” it said, adding that more than 90 percent of the questions submitted by the Opposition for answer by the Prime Minister have been denied.

“ Even when questions are permitted, the Opposition is being prevented from asking legitimate supplemental questions arising from the Prime Minister’s answers and statements,” it said, adding that “this stands in stark contrast to the operation of Prime Minister’s Questions under former prime minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who attended Prime Minister’s Questions and subjected himself to supplemental questions from the then Opposition.

“Today, however, we are confronted with a Prime Minister who has come to Parliament for the first time since the annual August recess, having been absent from Parliament for the entire month of September, and who now wishes to create the appearance that she has come before Parliament to account to the country.”

The PNM said it “will not participate in that pretense”, adding, “we will not dignify Prime Minister’s Questions by submitting questions into a process where the overwhelming majority of our questions are rejected and where meaningful supplemental questioning is blocked”.

The PNM said that accountability cannot exist when the “questions are predetermined, restricted or denied, while the Prime Minister is insulated from proper scrutiny”.

The PNM said that this deterioration extends well beyond Prime Minister’s Questions, with government ministers “increasingly invoking Standing Orders to avoid answering critical questions involving matters of significant public interest.

“Supplemental questions to Ministers are being blocked, while Questions on Notice are routinely denied, deferred or delayed,” the PNM said, adding that Parliament cannot be reduced to a stage where the government performs accountability while simultaneously using its majority and parliamentary procedure to frustrate it.

“The Opposition therefore sends a clear message today to the Prime Minister and those who continue to protect her from proper parliamentary scrutiny: we will not dignify this fake display of accountability.

“If the Prime Minister genuinely intends to account to the people, then allow the Opposition’s legitimate questions. Allow proper supplemental questions. Require Ministers to answer questions of public importance. Stop manipulating parliamentary procedure to frustrate scrutiny.”

The PNM said that the Parliament “belongs to the people of Trinidad and Tobago” and that “it must never be transformed into an instrument for shielding a Prime Minister or Government from accountability.

“The Opposition calls for an urgent convening of the Standing Orders Committee to correct this parliamentary charade and to restore supplemental questions to the PM during Prime Minister’s Questions.”