The future of the Bill the Zones of Special Operations will now depend on whether enough Independent Senators decide to vote in favour of it or not when it goes before the Senate tomorrow.
So is the Prime Minister hopeful the bill will get the required support on the Independent benches in the Senate?
00:00TV6 News sent a question to Prime Minister Kamala Persaud-Basasa on Monday to find out if she was hopeful the bill for the special zones of operations would get the required support from independent senators, given that the bill needs a three-fifths majority in the Senate on Tuesday.
00:17Prime Minister Persaud-Basasa said of the independent senators, quote, firstly, they are not independent, they are appointed by the president, end quote, as she made reference to the president's past tenure as a minister in a former PNM administration.
00:31Prime Minister Persaud-Basasa further said of the independent senators that, quote, secondly, they will present their usual vapid and shallow contributions and then most likely vote with the PNM in line with their voting history, who really cares if they support or not, we will move on with our other plans to protect citizens, end quote.
00:52TV6 News also asked the Prime Minister what message she had to any citizens who have concerns about the government's proposed zones of special operations and tended to take effect following the end of the state of emergency at the end of this month, January 31st.
01:07Prime Minister Persaud-Basasa said there are many communities that want the extra protection, so the government has no need to beg any community to accept it who doesn't want to.
01:16Prime Minister Persaud-Basasa told TV6 News that, quote, if citizens in any particular area don't want the added protection provided by the government, they are free to let us know, we will remove it, and they can fight it out with the criminals on their own, end quote.
01:31During the debate of the bill for the zones of special operations, during the first sitting of the House of Representatives for 2026, Port of Spain's South MP and former Minister of Policing Keith Scotland raised concerns about civil liberties.
01:45Prime Minister Persaud- Here is the thing about Trinidad and Tobago and its communities, as opposed to Jamaica.
01:52The reality of Trinidad and Tobago is that in our communities, criminal activities intertwined in same spaces where there are law-abiding citizens.
02:04How does the law-abiding citizens who will be cordoned off in those areas avoid the stigma, avoid the harsh, dire consequences when they have done nothing wrong?
02:17Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander later said the bill does not seek to marginalize or target any specific community, as he spoke directly to some members of the opposition.
02:27When we look at the phones, there are persons in your constituency, your constituency, your constituency, and your constituency already asking for the joint, the joint, the zones of operation to be the first place to deploy.
02:47And to ensure that we do not have any race attached to that, the Prime Minister's constituency might be the first one.
03:03The bill was passed by the House of Representatives via the government's majority.
03:11The Prime Minister told TV6 News that her priority is to protect law-abiding citizens and help those who want to help themselves,
03:19and that many people want change in the country, but many of those same people don't want to change.
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