PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Police on Friday prevented former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday from entering Parliament in the ongoing controversy as to whether he should be allowed to take his seat in the legislature following the decision of the Appeal Court to quash a criminal conviction against him.

The lawmen said they were acting on the orders of Speaker Barrendra Sinanan.

Earlier this month, the Government won parliamentary approval to go to the court to have it ruled on whether Panday, the interim leader of the main opposition United National Congress, should be allowed into Parliament following his court victory. The court is yet to rule on the issue.

Panday had been jailed for two years on each of the three counts of failing to declare a London bank account he and his wife Oma, held during the period he served as Prime Minister of this Caribbean nation in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

No house arrest

Panday has been demanding what he claims is his right to re-enter Parliament as the representative for Couva North.

"I have not been put under house arrest, not yet any way," he told reporters as supporters chanted his name outside the building in the heart of the capital.