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In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Dr Mar­lene Attzs and Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Faris Al-Rawi have re­ject­ed crit­i­cisms from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who has ques­tioned the in­de­pen­dence of mem­bers of the Sen­ate’s in­de­pen­dent bench. They de­scribed her com­ments as un­for­tu­nate and con­cern­ing.

Speak­ing on Mon­day, ahead of yes­ter­day’s Sen­ate de­bate on the Law Re­form (Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions) (Spe­cial Se­cu­ri­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Mea­sures) Bill, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she would not be sur­prised if sen­a­tors ap­point­ed by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo vot­ed against the mea­sure. The Prime Min­is­ter claimed the in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors were not tru­ly in­de­pen­dent, ar­gu­ing they were ap­point­ed by a Pres­i­dent she de­scribed as a for­mer “low-lev­el PNM func­tionary.”

“First­ly, they are not in­de­pen­dent … Sec­ond­ly, they will present their usu­al va­pid and shal­low con­tri­bu­tions and then most like­ly vote with the PNM in line with their vot­ing his­to­ry,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said. “Who re­al­ly cares if they sup­port or not? We will move on with our oth­er plans to pro­tect cit­i­zens.”