In Brief
- ZoSo Bill Returns: The Zones of Special Operations (ZOSO) Bill will be reintroduced to Parliament with amendments and will now only require a simple majority to pass.
- Committees at Work: The government is actively reviewing archaic pharmaceutical approval processes and winding up at least 10 defunct state enterprises.
- No Cabinet Reshuffle: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar dismissed social media rumours of an impending Cabinet reshuffle as ‘fake news’.
By Alicia Chamely
A simple majority will be all that is needed to pass the soon-to-be reintroduced Zones of Special Operations (ZOSO) Bill, says Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Further, she says the ZOSO Bill will be reintroduced with amendments; however, she did not specify what amendments had been made.
Persad-Bissessar disclosed this on Wednesday while speaking to the media before making her way into a sitting of the Lower House at the Red House, Port of Spain. She stressed that the ZOSO measure was needed to continue the success of the State of Emergency (set to end on September 17) and ensure public safety.
Persad-Bissessar said, “There’s the ZOSO that we’re looking at as well, and this bill needs a simple majority. We have made amendments.”
“I’m going through with a simple majority vote because I think we need this. We need to have our people feeling safe in our country. The SOE was successful, but we cannot do perpetual SOEs. So, I think this measure will help, and we will pass it in the House. We will pass it in the Senate,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said the government would listen to the Opposition and the Independent Bench, and if the Bill needed further adjustment, her government was willing to do so to have it passed.
She said, “We will listen to the Opposition. We listen to the Independents, and if we have to dovetail it in certain ways, we will do that. But I really want us to pass it, and I want the people of Trinidad and Tobago to understand that safety and security is first, because if you’re dead, you cannot enjoy good roads, you cannot enjoy schools, you can enjoy nothing else.”
The first Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) (Special Security and Community Development Measures) Bill 2026 was introduced in January 2026. A three-fifths majority was originally needed for the Bill to pass.
While it passed in the Lower House, it failed to pass in the Senate, causing the Bill to collapse. Independent Senators stated at the time that they would be willing to re-examine the legislation if certain amendments suggested by the bench were included.
Committees looking at pharmaceutical approval process, defunct state enterprises
Persad-Bissessar said while national security was at the “top of the list,” she was actively working on reform within the health sector to address pharmaceutical shortages.
The Prime Minister first spoke publicly on the issue on September 10 at a welcome ceremony for newly appointed Permanent Secretaries, saying she was personally working with a committee to address the antiquated policies surrounding the approval of drugs.
Asked for an update on Wednesday, she said, “I have a committee that is examining. We, as I said, we are living in an archaic age, the 1975 formulary, and the whole procedure for approving medications and the technology in improving our medications, the whole technology has changed. So, we are definitely pursuing that.”
Referencing the same September 10 ceremony, she said she had also spoken about the discovery of defunct state companies that were still on the books and her promise to “clean up.”
Persad-Bissessar said, “I told you all at the PS meeting as well, we have all these different companies that the government is keeping… do you remember BWIA? How long did BWIA come off the books, but they are on the books. But that is still listed as a company to be wound up.”
She said that thus far, the committee had identified 10 defunct state companies and was in the process of winding them up.
No Cabinet reshuffle
Responding to a document circulating on social media claiming to be leaked from the Office of the Prime Minister, which details the reshuffling of her Cabinet, Persad-Bissessar dismissed it as a “fake story,” and “fake news.”
Asked directly about the document and whether there would be a reshuffle, Persad-Bissessar said, “The answer is no.”
Persad-Bissessar added, “Am I satisfied with Cabinet Ministers? I will tell you this, there is always room for improvement in every one of us.”
“So there will be no reshuffle at this time,” she said
