Next up was the leader of the opposition- who explained why the opposition cannot support  the bill:…

Hon. John Briceno - Leader of the Opposition
"The Prime Minister is spinning his hopes on getting a yes vote for the referendum, simply because he believes that if we get a yes vote that will allow them to win the next general elections. Once again, we come to the National Assembly to debate a bill that we got less than 24 hours ago - a bill that the government is insisting in pushing it through all 3 stages in one sitting. As I said earlier, we place our strongest objection to this. This could be one of the most important piece of legislation that this government is presenting today Madam Speaker and they are proposing to just ram it through the house today. No time Madam Speaker, for us to come to this honourable house and have a serious debate, a serious debate on a bill that potentially - listen to me, potentially determine the future of our country. Yet the government - is already started and we heard the Prime Minister earlier, wants to accuse us on this side of the house that we want to stop the referendum. We were the ones that introduced a law to hold a referendum, that is the best form of democracy that we can have in our country - where we're giving the people an opportunity to decide issue of national importance Madam Speaker. That is our record. So for them, to even attempt to try to say that we want to stop a referendum is nothing further from the truth Madam Speaker. We want a referendum; we respect the right of the people to make that decision Madam Speaker. But, we have to get it right. (applause) "