MINISTER of State in the Ministry of National Security Senator Pearnel Charles Jr says he was “shocked” by the Opposition’s approach in the debate on the Zones of Special Operations Bill in the Senate on Friday.

“I was shocked that at least three Opposition senators were so strongly opposed to the bill that they didn’t even want it passed,” Charles, the son of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Pearnel Charles, told the Jamaica Observer after the Bill was passed following a debate lasting more than 11 hours.

Charles Jr said that the response from Opposition senators — Lambert Brown, Sophia Binns and Wensworth Skeffery — left him wondering whether there was a split within the ranks of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) on the matter.

“Those three senators were determined to contradict their own party and leader of the Opposition (Dr Peter Phillips), and their spokesman on national security (Peter Bunting). I was shocked that they so openly contradicted the position of their party leader and openly demonstrated that they rejected his views on the Bill,” he said.

He added that he was particularly shocked at Senator Brown’s statement in his contribution that the Opposition senators would not support the Bill, which was not in line with the position taken by Senator Mark Golding, the leader of Opposition business.

“Unless their behaviour was sanctioned by the party, it must have been a sham. I was surprised to hear Senator Brown say that the Opposition would not support the Bill,” he stated.

Dr Phillips had suggested certain amendments to the Bill in the House of Representatives, which Prime Minister Andrew Holness, agreed to address in order to facilitate bipartisan support there.

The Bill was eventually passed in the Senate Friday night with 13 amendments. But, Senator Charles said that the amendments were either from the Government or had been put forward by Senator Golding and Senator KD Knight who offered some amendments which the government was willing to facilitate.