TRINIDAD-Government agrees to the recommendation to postpone national debate on the Constitution.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC The Th20 CMC and Tobago government said Friday it had accepted the recommendations of a committee appointed to revisit and review the Constitution to further delay the national consultation process on its report in November.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley told Parliament that the government-appointed National Advisory Committee on Constitutional Reform, under the chairmanship of the former speaker of Parliament, Barendra Sinanan, SC, had concluded a nationwide series of meetings with members of the public and “received voluminous correspondence from interested citizens who chose to participate in had collated the inputs of these discussions and documents in a report entitled “We the People” which was received by the Cabinet on August 02, 2024, and was later published on the Office of the Prime Minister’s website where it has been available to be accessed by any person.

Rowley said that subsequent to the receipt of this document, the Cabinet agreed on August 08 to extend the life of the Committee to December 31 this year.

“This extension was mainly to improve national education on the contents of our national Constitution. To this end, some members of the Committee have already appeared on national television and engaged in useful discussions that have helped the public understand the content and nuances of this fundamental document called the Constitution.”

Rowley said that the government indicated that as part of an ongoing process, the Committee’s report would have been the working document to facilitate a detailed national consultation process in November.

However, the Committee recommends that this event take place a little bit later for two reasons,” Rowley said, noting the availability of members of the Committee to participate in the process and the requirement of more time to advance public education.

“The Government accepts this recommendation and is at this moment laying the report in this Honourable House today as it postpones the National Consultation to a date to be fixed early in the new year,” he said, thanking all the members of the Committee “who have given of their time and expertise in the furtherance of the advancement of this very timely, necessary and useful exercise.”

Trinidad and Tobago will observe the 62nd anniversary of being a republic on September 24.