Trinidad and Tobago

Coordinates: 11°N 61°W / 11°N 61°W / 11; -61

Trinidad and Tobago ⁱ/ˈtrɪnᵻˌdæd ənd toʊˈbeɪɡoʊ/, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is a twin island country situated off the northern edge of South America mainland, lying 11 kilometres (6 mi) just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and 130 kilometres (81 mi) south of Grenada. Bordering the Caribbean to the north, it shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Grenada to the northwest, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west. The country covers an area of 5,128 square kilometres (1,980 sq mi) and consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, with numerous smaller landforms. The two main islands are divided into nine regions, and one ward. Sangre Grande is the largest of the country's nine regions, comprising about 18% of the total area and 10% of the total population of the country. Trinidad and Tobago lies outside of the hurricane belt.

Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago

Coordinates: 10°39′11″N 61°30′42″W / 10.65306°N 61.51167°W / 10.65306; -61.51167

The Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago is the legislative branch of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. The Parliament is bicameral. It consists of the elected House of Representatives, which has 41 members elected for a five-year term in single-seat constituencies, and the Senate which has 31 members appointed by the President: 16 Government Senators appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister, 6 Opposition Senators appointed on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition and 9 Independent Senators appointed by the President to represent other sectors of civil society.

International affiliation(s)

See also

House of Representatives

House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often called a "Senate". In some countries, the House of Representatives is the sole chamber of a unicameral legislature.

The functioning of a house of representatives can vary greatly from country to country, and depends on whether a country has a parliamentary or a presidential system. Members of a House of Representatives are typically apportioned according to population rather than geography.

National legislatures

The Indonesian People's Representative Council (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, DPR) is generally known in English as the "House of Representatives", as is the Dewan Rakyat of the Parliament of Malaysia and the Dáil Éireann of the Irish Oireachtas parliament. In the 2012 draft for a new Constitution of Egypt, the People's Assembly is called "House of Representatives".

Order Paper

The Order Paper is a daily publication in the Westminster system of government which lists the business of parliament for that day's sitting. A separate paper is issued daily for each house of the legislature.

The Order Paper provides members of the legislature with details of what will be happening in that house, including the questions that have been tabled for departmental question sessions and members who have been selected to speak. It also gives details of when and where the standing committees and select committees will be meeting, and the list of debates to be held. Written questions tabled to ministers by members of the legislature on the previous day are listed at the back of the order paper.

British parliamentarians often wave their Order Paper during debates in the House of Commons.

External links

Tobago

Tobago /təˈbeɪɡoʊ/ is an autonomous island within the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the mainland of Trinidad and southeast of the Caribbean country of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt. According to the earliest English-language source cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, Tobago bore a name that has become the English word tobacco. The national bird of Tobago is the cocrico.

Population

The population was 62,219 at the 2011 census. The capital, Scarborough, has a population of about 25,550. While Trinidad is multiethnic, Tobago's population is primarily of African descent, although with a growing proportion of Trinidadians of East Indian descent and Europeans. Between 2000 and 2011, the population of Tobago grew by 12.55 percent, making it one of the fastest-growing areas of Trinidad and Tobago.

History

Christopher Columbus first sighted Tobago in 1498. Subsequently, several powers fought over possession of the island.

The original Island Carib population had to defend the island against other Amerindian tribes. Then, during the late 1500s and early 1600s, the natives defended it from European colonists, for instance in 1654 from the Courlanders, who colonised the island intermittently between 1637 and 1690. Over the years, the Dutch, English, Spanish, Swedish, Curonians (Duchy of Courland) and French transformed Tobago into a battle zone and the island changed hands 33 times, the most in Caribbean history, and often name, before the Treaty of Paris ceded it to the British in 1814.