By Sean Douglas

Copyright newsday

A split Senate narrowly passed a bill to allow citizenship to foreign-born grandchildren of TT nationals, with the Opposition and most independent senators voting against the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2025. The debate lasted almost 11 hours, from September 17 into the wee hours of September 18.

The bill was passed by 16 votes “for,” 13 “against” and one abstention.

Those supporting the bill were all government senators plus temporary independent senator Wesley Gibbings.

The 13 senators opposing the bill were all six opposition senators plus seven independent senators (Sophia Chote, Anthony Vieira, Dr Marlene Attzs, Michael de la Bastide, Candice Jones-Simmons, Francis Lewis and Alicia Lalitte-Ettienne). Independent senator Courtney Mc Nish abstained.

The bill was previously passed on September 12 in the House of Representatives by 27 votes “for” and ten votes “against”, with no abstentions.

Parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Sport, David Nakhid had piloted the bill, saying it could lift TT in global sports/athletics forums by widening the pool of foreign-based talent available to represent the red, white and black, while potentially boosting the TT economy by up to US$1 billion. However, independent senator Anthony Vieira said the bill’s proposals had come “out of the blue”, with no prior public consultations, green or white papers, or governmental statement of intent.

“What are we seeking to remedy that the previous law did not cover?” he asked.

The Senate adjourned to a date to be fixed.