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  • 1 year ago

Attorney General Reginald Armour SC is expressing disappointment tonight that the Tobago Self Government Bill was not passed in Parliament on Monday. The Attorney General spoke on Wednesday during a media briefing in Tobago. Elizabeth Williams was there and has this report.
Transcript
00:00And I was there for the debate on the two bills, and I was disappointed that the opposition
00:05voted against the bill.
00:07The attorney general said it is now back to the drawing board on the Tobago autonomy matter.
00:13Because the opposition voted against the constitution amendment bill, the Tobago bill that we did
00:19pass is now on hold.
00:20We have to go back to the drawing board because it would not be able to take effect given
00:26that the opposition did not support the amendment bill.
00:29The attorney general explained the process involving the Tobago autonomy bills further.
00:34I would prefer to answer it in very limited terms.
00:38One bill was the constitutional amendment bill, which the opposition voted against,
00:41so it didn't go through.
00:42And that bill was intended to give a qualitatively improved self-autonomy to Tobago.
00:49The other bill, the Tobago House of Assembly bill, has a number of provisions in it that
00:55would allow the Tobago House of Assembly, under that bill, which was passed and approved
01:01by parliament, for the Tobago House of Assembly to be able to run itself in a much more autonomous way.
01:09On Monday, the Tobago autonomy bills were defeated as 21 government members voted for
01:15the bill and 16 members of the opposition voted against.
01:20The bill needed a special three-fourths majority for passage.
01:24Elisabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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