(Trinidad Express) – Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday have decided ‘to work towards agreeing to a new’ constitution during the existing parliamentary term which ends in December 2012.
On Tuesday, however, Manning and Panday were unable to agree on a key aspect of the opposition’s proposals during the hour-long talks on the issue, which also dealt with legislation to deal with crime. The meeting was held at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.
It was Panday’s first visit to the Diplomatic Centre, which he has publicly criticised for being too expensive.
The stumbling block is Panday’s proposal of the election of an executive president on the basis of proportional representation which, he maintains, will ensure the executive president does not have a majority in the Parliament since each party will get seats depending on how many votes they get.
Manning and Panday are set to meet again on the issue after the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.
Both men emerged from Tuesday’s meeting smiling, with Manning saying the talks, which were also attended by Attorney General John Jeremie and opposition MP Vasant Bharath, had been “fruitful” and revealed he had asked Panday to present the opposition’s recommendations on constitutional reform and winning the war on crime in writing, so that the government could study them.
Panday said this would be done.
“It appears as though both of us would like a new constitution in place, and we agreed to work towards that to see if we could achieve it in this term,” Manning told reporters at the entrance of the Diplomatic Centre with Panday at his side.
Later, however, it became clear there were obstacles to the wished-for agreement.
“We have fundamental disagreements between us. The basic one, I think, being proportional representation, but the idea is to go to the population and explain what it is all about. I’m sure the government will put forward their views, and we will put forward (ours) and in the end, hopefully popular opinion will prevail,” Panday said.
He said constitutional reform could not occur without the opposition’s support but neither can other pieces of legislation such as what government is proposing for the Special Anti-Crime Unit, criminal gang suppression, wire-tapping and money laundering that were discussed yesterday.
“The government put on the table the fact that there are six critical items of legislation that we would like to discuss with the opposition before it comes to the Parliament,” Manning said.
Panday later told reporters at a news conference, held at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Port of Spain, that the war on crime cannot be won without constitutional reform as he raised objections to the working docu ment for the latest draft constitution having been prepared by scholars operating out of the Office of the Prime Minister before it was put out for public consultation.
Manning stood behind the process that led to the working document on Tuesday and said he had “discussed at length” with Panday “aspects of the working document that are on the table,” which came about “after three years of discussion and consultations.
“I heard some views from the Leader of the Opposition but what we agreed on, we agreed to work towards agreeing to a new constitution. We agreed to do that. And as I had told the Leader of the Opposition, I don’t know how long I will last in politics again. The way things are going, of course, he may very well last longer than I will,” Manning said.
Before Manning could finish his point, however, Panday quipped, “Of course, I know… until the next elections are called.”
Panday, however, immediately apologised and said “that’s besides the point”.
In response to questions raised by Congress of the People (COP) political leader Winston Dookeran and political scientist Prof Selwyn Ryan as to whether Tuesday’s meeting would result in an accommodation between Manning and Panday on a specific matter, the prime minister said: “Is there any evidence for that? I am not aware of any.”