Beckles hails Senate rejection of ZOSO bill

Chester Sam­bra­no

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has wel­comed the de­feat of the Law Re­form (Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions) Spe­cial Se­cu­ri­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment 2026 Bill in the Sen­ate, de­scrib­ing the out­come as a sign that democ­ra­cy re­mains in­tact in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In a so­cial me­dia post is­sued af­ter the vote last night, Beck­les said the col­lapse of the leg­is­la­tion showed that de­mo­c­ra­t­ic safe­guards were work­ing.

“Enough is Enough!! The col­lapse of the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill in the sen­ate tonight proves that democ­ra­cy is alive and well in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Tonight is a good night Trinidad and To­ba­go. No to ZOSO. No to this wicked Gov­ern­ment. Proud of our Sen­a­tors who stood up for the Peo­ple.”

The bill sought to grant sweep­ing au­thor­i­ty to the Prime Min­is­ter and the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil to des­ig­nate com­mu­ni­ties as se­cu­ri­ty zones and de­ploy ex­pand­ed po­lice and mil­i­tary pow­ers.

The leg­is­la­tion re­quired a three-fifths ma­jor­i­ty for pas­sage but failed to se­cure the sup­port of a sin­gle In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor. The Gov­ern­ment need­ed at least four In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors to vote in favour for the bill to pass.

Af­ter four sit­tings of the Up­per House, 15 Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tors vot­ed in favour of the bill, while 14 vot­ed against, in­clu­sive of eight of the nine In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors and six Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tors. In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Court­ney Mc Nish ab­stained.