On the 49th an­niver­sary of Re­pub­lic Day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar called for ur­gent re­forms to strength­en T&T’s democ­ra­cy, not­ing that the foun­da­tions of the Re­pub­lic re­main flawed.

“Since 1976, our Re­pub­li­can Con­sti­tu­tion has con­cen­trat­ed ex­ces­sive pow­er in the of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and weak­ened so-called in­de­pen­dent in­sti­tu­tions, which were of­ten ap­point­ed by a Pres­i­dent be­hold­en to the rul­ing par­ty,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She ar­gued that these flaws have un­der­mined checks and bal­ances, lim­it­ing fair­ness and ac­count­abil­i­ty in gov­er­nance.