The disciplinary action came at the end a long debate on the Report of the Privileges Committee which found Mr Manning was in contempt of the House for misleading statements he made about the private residence of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
twenty five MPs voted to suspend the former prime minister; nine voted against and there were no abstentions. Manning was not in the chamber. He has gone to Cuba for medical treatment and is expected to return home by the end of the week.
Manning, who first entered Parliament in 1971, is the longest serving MP in the country. He has had an unbroken record as the MP for San Fernando East. He served as PM from 1991 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2010.
He was voted out of office just under a year ago in a general election that he called more than two years ahead of schedule.
He is the second former Prime Minister to be suspended from the House of Representatives. In 2008, the PNM dominated Parliament kicked out former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday for using his laptop in the House of Representatives without permission from the Speaker
Opposition MP Colm Imbert objected to to the suspension motion, charging that the government was using its majority to have Manning suspended from the Parliament indefinitely and unfairly.
He also spoke of Manning's court action that is coming up for hearing Tuesday. "It no longer has anything to do with the allegations made and the rebuttal made. It has gone now to a very basic question of the rules and norms of procedural fairness," Imbert stated.
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