00:00The Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill came under sustained criticism from the opposition as debate continued in the House.
00:08Diego Martin Northeast MP Colm Imbert challenged the government's approach to a series of legislative changes now before Parliament.
00:16Over the last month or so, they've been coming to us at the last minute, the day before, with complex
00:23legislation, none of which has been the subject of formal consultation with the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:33And this is another one. And when you tell them that, they say, well, we put it in our manifesto,
00:39and that was consultation.
00:41Imbert also turned his attention to the role of the Elections and Boundaries Commission and the significantly reduced time frame
00:49in which he said it would have to implement changes.
00:52The interval for working out boundaries given to the EBC is a minimum of two years. Two years.
01:02Yes, the access interval at not less than two, not more than three years from the previous report.
01:08And over the years, EBCs have had difficulty in even getting to the three years.
01:15And he rejected the minister's suggestion that opposition-controlled municipal bodies fail to provide feedback on the proposed reforms.
01:23The PNM mails and chairman asked the minister, what are you proposing? Do you intend to shift the boundaries? Let
01:30us see what you plan. Let us see the new map that you want.
01:33And the minister, point blank, refused to provide that information because we knew what they were up to.
01:38They were going to gerrymander the boundaries. We want to see how they're going to gerrymander the boundaries first before
01:43you could make a comment. We're not stupid, Mr. Speaker.
01:45He then pointed to the San Juan Lavantel Regional Corporation as an example of what he claimed was gerrymandering.
01:53The UNC knows that with the existing boundaries, they could never win San Juan Lavantel Corporation.
02:01There's licks for them in San Juan Lavantel.
02:03So what they did, what they did, there's a cluster, there's a cluster of UNC votes in Aranguiz and El
02:11Socorro.
02:11So they went into the corporation and carved out this little piece, little piece, it only has as much voters
02:19as a constituency.
02:21But Mbitt says regardless of how the boundaries are redrawn, the government will ultimately have to answer to voters.
02:28It's that the population is so upset with them. The population is so angry with them.
02:34The thousands and thousands of unemployed people on the breadline right now who can't feed their children, who can't survive,
02:43who can't pay their rent, who can't pay their light bill because of this wicked and oppressive government.
02:47They will vote you out. You could change any boundary you want. You could interfere with any boundary you want.
02:55The Municipal Corporation's amendment bill remains before Parliament.
02:59Our Rishi Tiwari Ruknarain, TV6 News.
03:05The Municipal Corporation
03:05The Municipal Corporation
03:05The Municipal Corporation
03:05The Municipal Corporation
03:06The Municipal Corporation
