Opposition wants president ousted
Published:Monday | July 20, 2009 | 9:15 AM
The main opposition United National Congress has initiated steps that it hopes will result in the removal of President George Maxwell Richards from office.
Opposition Chief Whip Hamza Rafeeq has written to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Barendra Sinanan, requesting a debate on a motion that could lead to the establishment of a tribunal to investigate the head of state.
According to Section 36 of the Trinidad and Tobago constitution, the head of state may only be removed from office on a number of grounds.
This includes, if he wilfully violates any provision of the Constitution.
He may also be removed if he behaves in a manner to bring his office into hatred, ridicule and contempt and by a motion that a tribunal proposed in Parliament to investigate his removal from office.
The Opposition has listed as its main grounds for the President’s removal, the collapse of the Integrity Commission, adding that he behaved in a way to bring his office into hatred, ridicule or contempt.