PM misses meeting with opposition due to flu; Rowley wants hanging debate in April

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and Attorney General Anand Ramlogan at the Diplomatic Centre

A four member team from the opposition met on Thursday with a government delegation led by House Leader Dr Roodal Moonilal but the two sides failed to reach agreement on government's proposed constitutional amendment to categorise murders and hang convicted killers.

The opposition team, which was led by Dr Keith Rowley, included Chief Whip Marlene McDonald, Diego Martin Central MP Dr Amery Browne and Opposition Senator Faris Al Rawi, said it wants more time to discuss the measure and suggested that it would not be able to give a final word on it until after its national convention on March 20.

The government team comprised Moonilal, National Security Ministers John Sandy and Subhas Panday, and Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.

Rowley told reporters the matter is "sufficiently sensitive" and must not be rushed to the Parliament. He acknowledged that his party - the People's National Movement (PNM) - and the wider community support the death penalty. However he suggested that the matter be debated in April when the convention would be out of the way.

"We thought the Government was rushing it, we don't believe there is need for that kind of haste," Rowley said. He added, "The PNM's position is that we support the death penalty".

Moonilal said that Government will also have further discussions on the matter at its own caucus meetings before deciding on whether to postpone the legislation to meet the Opposition's request.

"It was our hope that this matter could be dealt with quickly and urgently given the situation in the country, given the crime rate and what is happening, notwithstanding the decrease in serious crime last year and the direction we are going in where we are seeing a decrease...we would like to pass legislation that will deal in a more forceful way with the issue of crime," he said.

Moonilal noting that government has the required numbers to pass the measure without the support of the opposition. But he indicated that the government would like to have the support of the other side as it did with the wiretapping bill.


"We prefer to build consensus and not only the Opposition but with the Independent benches and the national community," Moonilal said.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who was supposed to lead the government team, missed the meeting because she was suffering from the flu. She even missed the regular cabinet meeting, which was chaired by Finance Minister Winston Dookeran.

The Prime Minister's office issued a release Friday afternoon clarifying a newspaper report that stated that although Persad-Bissessar skipped the meeting with the opposition she attended another one at about half past four.

In a brief media release, the office of the Prime Minister said the newspaper report was wrong, noting that Persad-Bissessar "did not attend any meeting yesterday (Thursday) at the Office of the Prime Minister or any other location due to her illness with the flu."