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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was a no-show at the na­tion­al day of prayer she had pub­licly cham­pi­oned to re­place the coun­try’s In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions, a move that drew swift and point­ed crit­i­cism from Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les.

The in­ter­faith ser­vice, host­ed by the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion, be­gan at 10 am at the Di­vali Na­gar in Ch­agua­nas yes­ter­day and was in­tend­ed to be the cen­tral ob­ser­vance of the re­vised na­tion­al hol­i­day.

The Prime Min­is­ter’s ab­sence was not an iso­lat­ed in­ci­dent. Guardian Me­dia, which left the event short­ly af­ter noon, not­ed a wide­spread lack of at­ten­dance from Cab­i­net mem­bers, leav­ing the ser­vice with­out any seem­ing­ly of­fi­cial Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tion.