Gonzales accuses PM of dividing T&T over Special Operations Bill

Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les has ac­cused Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of deep­en­ing po­lit­i­cal and so­cial di­vi­sions by sig­nalling that the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed spe­cial op­er­a­tions pow­ers could be ap­plied dif­fer­ent­ly de­pend­ing on which par­ty con­trols a con­stituen­cy.

Gon­za­les is com­ment­ing on the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill for the first time since its in­tro­duc­tion in Par­lia­ment, fol­low­ing his re­cent re­turn to Trinidad from a Com­mon­wealth Par­lia­men­tary As­so­ci­a­tion con­fer­ence in South Africa.

His com­ments come af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar, on Mon­day, said the leg­is­la­tion would be used in con­stituen­cies con­trolled by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, while To­ba­go would be in­clud­ed fol­low­ing con­sul­ta­tion with Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine.