Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says a se­nior Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor was ap­proached by two In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors be­fore the vote on the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) Bill on Tues­day. The Bill failed in the Sen­ate with eight vot­ing against the Bill while Sen­a­tor Court­ney Mc­Nish ab­stained.

In a pub­lic state­ment is­sued af­ter the Sen­ate vote, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she an­tic­i­pat­ed op­po­si­tion from the Pres­i­dent’s ap­point­ed Sen­a­tors and claimed that at­tempts were made to trade sup­port for per­son­al favours. She said those re­quests were re­fused and that, from that point, it be­came clear the Bill would fail.

“My Gov­ern­ment will not buy votes,” the Prime Min­is­ter stat­ed, adding that those in­volved “know who they are” and must ac­cept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their ac­tions.