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Multiple referendums could be on cards

Malahoo Forte gives update on constitutional reform

Published:Wednesday | April 19, 2023 | 1:54 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Marlene Malahoo Forte, minister of legal and constitutional affairs.
Marlene Malahoo Forte, minister of legal and constitutional affairs.

Legal and Constitutional Affairs Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte suggested on Tuesday that Jamaicans could be called on to participate in more than one referendum as the Government works to overhaul the nation’s Constitution.

Malahoo Forte, who is the co-chair of the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC), was giving an update in Parliament a month after the members of the body were publicly announced.

The work of the committee is being executed in three phases: bringing the Constitution home by having it enacted as an instrument of the Parliament of Jamaica; abolition of the constitutional monarchy with the establishment of the Republic of Jamaica; and other matters that fall within the provisions of the Constitution for which a referendum is required to amend.

The minister said they would only proceed with matters on which they have consensus.

“Madam Speaker, all decisions the CRC has been [making] and continues to make will be made by consensus. All issues are robustly discussed, taking into account views in the public domain, the experience of the CRC members, and the recommendations of the joint select committee,” the minister said.

“This may mean that we will have to prepare ourselves as Parliament and as a nation for, perhaps, more than one referendum if needs be,” she said.

She said members of the public will have the opportunity to give feedback on the recommendations made by the CRC before its submissions go to the Cabinet for approval.

Immediately after Malahoo Forte referenced a media report about the Government and Opposition differing on how a Jamaican president would be appointed, Opposition Leader Mark Golding interrupted her presentation.

He insisted that what was being suggested by Malahoo Forte of what the PNP stated “was inaccurate and would mislead the House if allowed to stand”.

STATEMENT

Said Golding: “The release of the party, the PNP (People’s National Party), to which the minister refers, was not [headlined] ‘Opposition and Government differ on how appointment of the Jamaican president should be decided’. That was the headline put in place by the particular news house that carried it. The statement was headed, ‘PNP states position of the appointment of the President as Head of State for the Republic of Jamaica’,” Golding said.

“So what has been said here would suggest that we issued a statement under this caption. [It’s] false and wrong, and I ask that the minister correct that, please,” he said.

Golding insisted that the president must have bipartisan support and the backing of the wider public.

Opposition member Julian Robinson also added to Golding’s concerns. He said that for any of these changes, it requires a referendum and the sittings that should be made public.

“I don’t want to say this is a once-in-a-generational time activity, but it is close to that,” Robinson said.

He also questioned as to where the process of public consultation and public education would come in.

For her part, and in her response, Malahoo Forte said, “I do not intend to make this contentious and I’m happy for the clarification that the leader of the Opposition has put out.”

She added that the view put forward by the Opposition through the press differs from the views put forward by its members on the committee.

“At last week’s meeting of the CRC (Constitutional Reform Committee), the issue of presidential selection was deliberated upon, with the recommendation of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional and Electoral Reform that the president should be nominated by the prime minister, after consultation with the leader of the opposition,” she explained.

“The primary question was about how the vote should be taken. The view put forward by the Opposition in what came out in the press is different from the view put forward by the Opposition through its members on the committee,” she added.

“There is nothing secret in the work being done … ,” she further added. “So far, the deliberations of the CRC have taken place in an atmosphere of respect for all voices and views. In arriving at consensus, we not only focus on the recommendation itself, but also on the reason for making it ... .”

She said that the CRC has hit the ground running and that five meetings with the full committee have been held in the last month.

“I’m really using this medium to urge a different approach because we have to signal unity to the nation. Otherwise, we will go through the work and end in the same way previous committees and commissions have ended – the major thing not being implemented,” she appealed.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com