The United Progressive Party (UPP) has sharply condemned Senate President Hon. Alincia Williams-Grant after she refused to allow Opposition Leader Hon. Jamale Pringle to be seated for the Throne Speech on Monday, May 26.
The Senate President cited the fact that Pringle had not yet taken the Oath of Office as her reason for excluding him. The UPP rejects that justification outright, noting that Pringle had been formally invited to the sitting in a letter dated May 14, addressed to "Honourable Member" and signed by the Clerk to Parliament. He arrived in good time, the party says, for the taking of the Oath — a process administered by the Clerk.
The situation escalated when Senate Minority Leader Hon. Chester Hughes was subsequently denied the floor to address the President. That refusal prompted all four Opposition Senators to walk out of the sitting in protest.
Hughes characterised the Senate President's conduct as politically partisan, asserting that a Government MP in the same position would have been permitted to take the Oath before proceedings got underway. He also highlighted an apparent inconsistency: the Attorney-General was allowed to speak during the sitting despite holding no primacy in the Upper House, while he, as Senate Minority Leader, was denied his right to address the President.
The UPP dismissed the Senate President's reported reference to Trinidad and Tobago parliamentary practice as justification for her ruling. "Parliament is empowered to make its own rules," Hughes noted, making the Trinidad and Tobago comparison irrelevant.
The party went further, accusing the Senate President of acting in collusion with Government members of the Lower House in a deliberate effort to embarrass Pringle and humiliate the Opposition. The UPP concluded that democracy itself is under threat.
