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THE House of Representatives will sit at 1.30 pm on June 27 to debate a bill to set limits on the award of a pension to a prime minister.
Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo is listed on the order paper to present the bill, the Prime Minister’s Pension (Amendment) Bill 2025.
Newsday was unable to get any comment from either the government or opposition as to how they see the debate doing.
Opposition Chief Whip Marvin Gonzales via WhatsApp told Newsday, "We are having a caucus tomorrow to finalise our position."
However, much can be gleaned from a quick reading of the explanatory notes attached to the bill, as posted on the Parliament website.
It says, "This bill seeks to amend the Prime Minister’s Pension Act (Chapter 2:51) to require a person to serve at least one year as prime minister in order to qualify for a prime minister’s pension."
The notes said the bill would have retroactive effect.
It added that the bill's provisions would have effect even though inconsistent with sections 4 and 5 of the Constitution, which spell out people's civil rights such as entitlement to enjoy their property.
The notes crucially state, "The bill would therefore require the support of three-fifths of all the members of each House of Parliament."
By Newsday's calculation a three-fifths special majority in the 41-member House would amount to a figure rounded off upwards to be 26 MPs. This is the full number of seats won by the UNC in the April 28 general election, whether or not the two MPs from the Tobago People's Party (TPP) – Joel Sampson and David Thomas – vote with the UNC.
A look at the bill (section 2) itself shows it "is deemed to have come into force on the 10th day of March, 2025."
The bill proposes to award an ever-increasing proportion of a prime minister's salary to be his/her annual pension with each successive year he/she serves as prime minister.
It says a PM serving at least one year gets a pension worth one-third of his/her highest salary ever earned as PM.
A PM serving over two years, will get 50 per cent of their highest salary as pension.
After serving three years, a PM is entitled to two-thirds of their highest salary as their pension.
A PM who serves four year or more is entitled to "the full amount of the highest annual rate of salary paid to him at any time as prime minister.”
Newsday asked political analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath whether he was detecting any mood among the general public or fellow academics that suggested support for such a limiting of the award of a PM's pension. Alternatively, would such a move be considered to be ad hominen ("to the man") legislation – that is, a bill crafted to target a specific person, Newsday asked.
Ragoonath replied, "There was and there continues to be some degree of upset at the fact that the one person would have served for that short period and whether or not he is deserving of a pension because of serving for that period of $1 million a year. There is that concern out there.
"There is no doubt about it that this concern was there and will continue to be there."
He then addressed the ad hominen issue.
"The question is whether or not it will be viewed in the context in which you have just suggested – whether everybody sees it as legislation geared towards one person and one person alone.
"So we really have to wait and see how the Parliament treats with it.
"I will not dare to try to to prejudge what the Parliament will say in this regard."
The Parliament website in its description of members states, "Mr Stuart Richard Young was appointed Prime Minister on March 17, 2025 following the resignation of Dr Keith Christopher Rowley."
A new leadership was ushered in by the April 28 general election. The Parliament website says, "On May 1, 2025, three days after her party's victory at the polls, Mrs (Kamla) Persad-Bissessar would again take the oath of office as Prime Minister."
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