ZOSO ALARM

Sev­er­al Op­po­si­tion MPs have raised con­cerns about the Gov­ern­ment’s new Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, with for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land de­scrib­ing it as “more egre­gious and se­ri­ous” than the Zone of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) Bill that failed in the Sen­ate ear­li­er this year.

Ahead of the bill’s ex­pect­ed de­bate in Par­lia­ment to­day, Scot­land has ar­gued that de­spite amend­ments made by Gov­ern­ment, the leg­is­la­tion still re­quires a three-fifths ma­jor­i­ty be­cause sev­er­al pro­vi­sions in­fringe on cit­i­zens’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Scot­land said: “This in­car­na­tion of this op­pres­sive leg­is­la­tion is more egre­gious and se­ri­ous than the one that was pre­vi­ous­ly re­ject­ed. It re­quires, to my hum­ble mind, a three-fifths par­lia­men­tary ma­jor­i­ty, and I can flag four ar­eas of con­sti­tu­tion­al in­fringe­ments.