by Linda Straker
- Vacant seat of the Leader of the Opposition has been filled by Tobias Clement
- Received instrument of appointment from Governor-General Dame Cecile La Grenade
- First task as Leader of the Opposition was to attend a virtual meeting of Finance Committee
As of 8:30 am on Tuesday, 14 April 2020, Grenada’s House of Representatives’ vacant seat of the Leader of the Opposition has been filled by Tobias Clement. That office has been vacant since the 2013 General Elections when the ruling New National Party (NNP) won all 15 seats in the House. Clement took the oath of office and received his instrument of appointment from Governor-General Dame Cecile La Grenade.
The leader of the opposition before Clement was Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, who held that post from 2008 to 2013.
Clement who is affectionately called “Toby,” campaigned as the NNP candidate for the 2013 and 2018 General Elections and won his seat as the member of parliament for the Constituency for the St George’s North East area.
As a backbencher, he was well known for questioning some government decisions. One of his latest was the Member of Parliament office sharing the same space as the political party constituency support office.
Clement resigned from the party in December 2019 and indicated then that he will not abandon the people of his constituency. He will be the only opposition member in the House of Representative and as Leader of the Opposition, he will among other things, be appointed as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, appoint 3 opposition senators and occupy the Leader of the Opposition office in the parliament building.
There were no media houses present for the short ceremony which was held at the Governor-General’s residence at Point Saline, but Clement, who is an educator at St George’s University, arranged a private recording.
“I will forward the recording to all media houses and I will have a press conference on Wednesday using Zoom technology so I can speak to media,” Clement replied when asked about his next step in the new position.
His first task as Leader of the Opposition was to attend a virtual meeting of the Finance Committee in which the members are reviewing a revised appropriation bill to facilitate the proposal presented in the Covid-19 stimulus package as announced by Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, in early March.
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Good Luck please be a man of the people..and be very careful when dealing with people who don’t speak our language esp the Chinese don’t suck up to dem and lick their Boots like the dishonest Prime minister in office.When Mitchell goes Grenada will be owned by the Chinese get rid of all ah dem.Let our people know that Grenada belongs to them and not the foreigners that Mitchell brought to the Island not to educate the people but to rob them of their Rights and treat them as 2nd class citizens in their own country, it will be a tough journey but Good Luck.
Seems self serving to me! His only agenda seem to be TOBY.
What is he hoping to accomplish when he only made it to parliament with the support of NNP supporters. Who is going to represent us and our vote, we voted for NNP not Toby. He is not representing NNP nor NDC so I guess he’s representing TOBY, so sad.
True hes there on an NNP ticket. I know what i type because im from St Geogre NE ppl voted him because they wanted nazim out. I strongly agree he has no chance of winning that seat again. Nobody knew who this bloke was the first time i saw him on an NNP platform…hence ppl just voted for him.
Well done and you serve the people without being part of corrupt stained henchmen. Hold your head up high.