Malahoo Forte: The law allows for tabling, taking of bill in one day

The recent amendment of the Constitution to allow for an increase in the retirement age for the director of public prosecutions (DPP) and the auditor general (AuG) by five years has been deemed as lawful by Minister Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte.

Her statement comes even as the opposition People’s National Party plans to mount a legal challenge against the constitutional change.

In what has been labelled as an unprecedented move, the Holness-led administration tabled, debated, and passed the Constitution (Amendment of Sections 96(1) and 121(1)) Act, 2023 on the same day, with a majority vote of 39 ayes on the government side and eight nays from the Opposition.

Three days later, the bill was approved by the Senate, with 11 government senators voting in favour of the bill, while six opposition senators voted against it.

“Right now in the public space, you would have heard a lot of controversy around the passage of the recent constitutional amendment bill, that the bill was tabled and taken in a single day; the law allows for it,” Malahoo Forte said while addressing the general meeting of the Rotary Club of New Kingston on Friday.

“The standing orders are regulations of the Constitution. The provisions of the Constitution amended there are ordinary provisions,” she said, further explaining that it only required a majority of members present at the sitting to support the change for its approval.

The constitutional affairs minister said the issues raised about whether another approach should be taken are for “another place and time”.

Meticulous process

Malahoo Forte, who also co-chairs the Constitutional Reform Committee, responded to suggestions that this matter should have been dealt with through the committee.

“The day-to-day running of Government is not delegated to anyone,” she told The Gleaner. “The Government has to continue to do its work on a day-to-day basis.”

In the meantime, she outlined the meticulous process under which the constitutional reform process will take place as the nation looks to transition to a republic.

“The bill has to be tabled and three months have to elapse before the debate commences. After the debate is concluded, the Constitution prescribes another three months that must elapse between the end of the debate and the vote on the bill. So you have six months of dead time, and that does not include the time that it will include before getting the bill to Parliament to prepare it, to ensure that people understand the work that is taking place,” she said.

In the end, she said it is the electoral public who will be called upon to approve the bill through a referendum after it goes through Parliament.

But describing the severing of ties with the British Monarch as a “righteous cause”, Malahoo Forte said it is one that transcends administrations.

“This work is life-altering to the nation. It is much bigger than this present administration. It requires a sound head, focus, while, of course, paying attention because the nation with the problem, mind you, must go through a process together to become the nation with the solution,” she said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com