By Paras Ramoutar, IANS
Port-of-Spain : Former Trinidad & Tobago prime minister Basdeo Panday has lost his Couva North seat in the House of Representatives, the country's lower house, after a court here ruled his seat vacant.
This is the first time in the history of the 54-nation Commonwealth of Nations that a former prime minister and member of parliament had to undergo such indignity.
The Couva North seat, which Panday represented since 1976, was formally declared vacant under Section 49(2) of the country's Republican Constitution, according to a ruling by High Court judge Justice Charmaine Pemberton Friday.
The seat was declared vacant in October 2006 after Panday, the first Indo-Trinidadian to become prime minister of this Caribbean nation, was found guilty of failing to declare a London bank account under the Integrity Legislation Act in April 2006. He was then ordered to serve two years in jail and pay fines.
However, the Court of Appeal later quashed Panday's conviction in March 2007 on the basis of an "apparent bias" on the part of the presiding magistrate.
As a result of this, speaker of the House of Representatives Barendra Sinanan, also an Indo-Trinidadian, referred the matter to the High Court.
According to parliament rules, Panday was given an extension of up to 150 days, and when the period lapsed, colleagues in his United National Congress (UNC) party refused to seek an extension, to which he was entitled.
Following their refusal, the speaker declared his seat vacant.
Panday, a second generation Trinidadian, became prime minister when the UNC assumed power in 1995 in coalition with the National Alliance for Reconstruction.
Indo-Trinidadians, most of whom are descendants of Indians who had come here between 1845 and 1917 to work as labourers in sugarcane plantations, now comprise around 40 percent of Trinidad & Tobago's total population of over one million.
In response to the judge's ruling, Panday, 73, said that the issue was far from over and that he would appeal the decision to the Court of Appeal.
UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who took up the position of leader of opposition after Panday was denied his seat, said her team did not agree with Justice Pemberton's ruling.
"It is difficult for us to embrace that our constitution would… exclude a duly elected member of parliament from resuming his seat when the Court of Appeal has quashed his conviction," she said.