Governor General Dame Susan Dougan has written to the Parliamentary Opposition Leader here, Dr. Godwin Friday, informing him of the pending boundaries commission which became due since at least 2 of the 3 conditions that are enshrined in the Vincentian constitution have been flagged.<\/p>\n
Dr. Friday, who is also the President of SVG\u2019s largest political opposition force, the New Democratic Party, told social media audiences last Sunday, \u201cI received a letter from the Governor General, Her Ladyship, citing basically 2 of those grounds that I pointed out to you. One being after a census was done because there was a census, so they say, was done \u2013 the thing is we haven\u2019t seen a published census.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then also 8 years have passed since we\u2019ve had the last boundaries commission so those are the two sections that were cited.\u201d
\nThe third section, although not invoked in Dame Dougan\u2019s missive, speaks to parliamentary prerogative as that august body must act on the constitutional provisions to have the number of established seats or increased or decreased or have individual constituencies realigned.
\nAlthough he admitted that his Party\u2019s nominee is already identified, Dr. Friday opted to observe established protocol so that he may first respond to the Governor General in writing before informing the Vincentian public.<\/p>\n
Several days before that episode of Asbert News Network and ITFX Digital Solutions\u2019 \u2018On D Spot\u2019 aired live on ANN\u2019s Facebook platform, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves took to national radio to announce the genesis of this latest reincarnation of the local boundaries commission.
\n\u201cOn Monday [June 8] I wrote to the Governor General to indicate to her that the circumstances have arisen under Section 33 of the Constitution of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for the appointment of a Constituency Boundaries Commission.<\/p>\n
In the letter I have named \u2013 well under Section 32 of the Constitution the Commission consists of 3 persons: the Chairman who is appointed by the Governor General in her own deliberate judgment; secondly, one person appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister and I named that person \u2013 Stephen Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I sent a copy of the letter to the Opposition Leader because he has to advise the Governor General on naming someone. I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s going to be any contention in any area. 15 seats, it\u2019s not going to be 17 it\u2019s 15 seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2010 you may recall we had passed a resolution in parliament for 17 seats but the 17 seats don\u2019t really come into effect until the report of the Commission is published and it comes into effect after the dissolution of the parliament. But there was no publication and it didn\u2019t come into effect after the dissolution because the Opposition went \u2013 they didn\u2019t like how the divisions had been done the boundary changes for the constitution \u2013 I mean for the constituencies and they said \u2013 they contested this.
\n\u201cWell election came, it operated under the 15 constituencies and the matter wasn\u2019t determined. They left it there. It\u2019s still there, it wasn\u2019t done by the 2015 elections but I had spoken to the Leader of the Opposition indicate to him that we need to do the Commission because since then the census has been published.\u201d<\/p>\n
PM Gonsalves also reminded listeners to his midweekly update that the census which was conducted in 2012 was jeopardized as \u201cthe place got burnt down \u2013 the room and they had to do it over [but] it was published afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
He further dated \u201cthe last time that a proper Commission was done\u201d as having been conducted since 2005 for that election cycle. Dr. Gonsalves also pointed out what he described as an error that was recorded in the Constitution due to the passage of an unspecified Bill in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you read in the Constitution you\u2019d see 17 seats but that\u2019s because we had passed a law in 2010 but there\u2019s an error where they put 17 there because 17 comes into play only if all the other steps are followed with the Commission and the publication things happen after the dissolution of the House and that\u2019s why the Attorney General had to correct that in the law. And they issued a Statutory Rule and Order, well he is the Chairperson of the Law Revision Commission …<\/p>\n
Statutory Rule and Order 18 of 2020 which was issued on May 29.\u201d
\nDr. Gonsalves noted that these steps are being taken, even in the face of the coronavirus scare, to facilitate the people\u2019s verdict on his bid to be Prime Minster for an unprecedented 5th term, later this year.<\/p>\n
JP.Schwmon.Vincy@Gmail.Com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Governor General Dame Susan Dougan has written to the Parliamentary Opposition Leader here, Dr. Godwin Friday, informing him of the pending boundaries commission which became due since at least 2 of the 3 conditions that are enshrined in the Vincentian constitution have been flagged. Dr. Friday, who is also the President of SVG\u2019s largest political<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":11410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news","category-mainstory"],"yoast_head":"\n