Lawmakers in Trinidad and Tobago’s Home of Representatives have handed controversial laws that modifications how pensions are awarded to former prime ministers — a transfer broadly believed to focus on Stuart Younger, who briefly held the place earlier this 12 months.
The Prime Minister’s Pension (Modification) Invoice, 2025, was accepted on Friday night with 27 votes from the ruling United Nationwide Congress (UNC) and its coalition companion, the Tobago Individuals’s Social gathering (TPP). The opposition Individuals’s Nationwide Motion (PNM), which beforehand held energy, abstained from the vote.
The invoice introduces a minimal service requirement of 1 12 months for a main minister to be eligible for any pension. It additionally replaces the earlier system — which granted a full pension no matter time served — with a tiered construction based mostly on size of service:
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1 to <2 years: One-third of the complete pension
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2 to <3 years: One-half
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3 to <4 years: Three-quarters
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4 or extra years: Full pension
Crucially, the laws is retroactive to March 10, 2025, simply earlier than Stuart Younger was appointed prime minister on March 17, following the resignation of then-prime minister Dr. Keith Rowley. Younger known as a snap election quickly after and served for just a few weeks earlier than shedding energy. Because of the retroactive clause and his brief tenure, Younger will now not qualify for a pension.
Younger, a senior member of the PNM and former legal professional normal, had beforehand known as the invoice unconstitutional and personally focused, and selected to not attend the parliamentary debate as a type of protest.
In Parliament, Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo, who launched the invoice, insisted it was not meant to focus on anyone particular person, though he harshly criticized Younger’s transient tenure.
“Lately, we witnessed actions that had been undemocratic, and which resulted in a main minister that nobody wished and one which this nation subsequently downright totally rejected,” Tancoo stated.
He questioned whether or not Younger’s appointment was even constitutional, including, “Even when it was constitutional, I imagine the [Pensions] Act must be introduced in keeping with regional finest apply.”
Opposition MP Keith Scotland tried to strike the retroactive clause through the debate, however the try was dominated out because it was not submitted in writing. Opposition MPs voiced objections through the proceedings however finally didn’t vote in opposition to the invoice.
The invoice now proceeds to debate within the Senate, the higher chamber of Trinidad and Tobago’s Parliament. If handed there, it’ll turn into regulation.
