Lawmakers give nod to making last viceroy ‘President of Barbados’

Governor General Dame Sandra Mason was today elected to become Barbados’ first President on November 30, when the country transitions to a republic.

But her election, in which the House of Assembly voted 27-0 and the Senate 18-0, was not without controversy.

In a secret ballot forced by Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn’s objection to her candidacy, Dame Sandra secured more than the two-thirds majority of both Houses of Parliament, required by the Constitution, to replace Queen Elizabeth II as Barbados’ Head of State.

Franklyn had voiced his objection after Speaker of the House Arthur Holder read a letter at the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, from Prime Minister Mia Mottley who informed that she and Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley had jointly nominated Dame Sandra for the position.

After reading the October 12, 2021 correspondence at the joint Parliamentary sitting, Holder asked whether any member had an objection to the candidate being declared.

Senator Franklyn was the only dissenting voice.

“I have an objection, Mister Speaker,” he declared.

The Speaker replied: “In accordance with the Constitution, I am therefore suspending this sitting.”

The House of Assembly and the Senate then separated for voting in the matter.

However, when voting began in the Senate, Franklyn raised yet another objection – this time about the procedure of the ballot.

“This document has no validity. It comes from nowhere,” he shouted.

“I have deemed it to be valid,” President of the Senate Reginald Farley responded.

“You cannot deem something to be valid that has no constitutional or legislative basis, Sir,” Franklyn retorted. “You will not treat me this way today. I will not stand for it. You will have to put me out.”

The Senator insisted that he be heard and when the Senate President said his concern had been noted, Franklyn said his concern had not been addressed.

He repeated his position that “this document has no validity. It comes from nowhere”.

“Somebody make up this last night after I told people get things in place cause I gine object. So ya rush and do this. I didn’t want to surprise anybody, ya know. I told everybody that this gine happen to show you the nonsense that we did in the House and the Senate last time when we passed the Constitution Amendment Act, there are no rules!” he added.

However, Farley indicated that Parliament makes its own rules for voting.

Franklyn refused to sit and after being warned he was bordering on contempt, sought leave to exit. It was granted and he left the Chamber.

Voting continued in the 20-member Upper House, where only Senator Lucille Moe was absent. Of the remaining 19 Senators, 18 voted ‘yes’, while there was one unreturned ballot, Senator Franklyn’s.

Speaker of the House Arthur Holder reported that the 27 Members of Parliament in attendance voted in agreement with Prime Minister Mottley’s and Bishop Atherley’s nomination. One MP, Dr. William Duguid did not attend the sitting.

Dame Sandra will record another first when she takes up the position of the non-executive Head of State in the Parliamentary Republic.

She has already made history as the first Barbadian female admitted to the Barbados Bar in 1975; the first female magistrate to serve as an Ambassador, when she was appointed Ambassador to Venezuela in 1992; the first woman appointed to serve on the Barbados Court of Appeal in 2008; and the first Barbadian to be appointed as a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal 2014.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley, speaking after the approval of Dame Sandra’s nomination, said members of both Houses of Parliament had elected “a woman who is uniquely and passionately Barbadian; does not pretend to be anything else; reflects the values of who we are; has been able, in spite of her achievement of many firsts, to maintain a humility that is so admired by our people”.

“Barbadians do not like boastful people, that is not our nature, but we like confident people and we like proud people and we like industrious people and we like people who fight for the underdog, who believe in social justice, who believe in fairness. That is who we are.

“And I can think therefore of no better person at this juncture of our nation who can reflect those values and who also, by dint of their life, has shown you that it is not simply about the fighting for rights – which is absolutely essential in a post-colonial society – but that they also recognise the responsibilities that must go hand in hand with the gift of those rights,” Mottley said.

Given an opportunity to address the sitting immediately after the election, Bishop Atherley shared his reasons for supporting the history-making Dame Sandra.

He noted that she had achieved excellence in her public and professional life and “worn all the trappings of her current office with dignity, polished bearing and the requisite mix of pride and humility”.

The Opposition Leader added that the President-elect “symbolizes and gives substantive expression to that which we desire to be ideally Barbadian”.

“….One who by manner of service and appreciation of office constitutes, again both symbolically and substantively, a unifying force in the practice of our political and governance model.”

Bishop Atherley said he had jointly proposed Dame Sandra on the basis that the Forde Commission had recommended that the first President of a Republic Barbados should be the incumbent Governor General at the time.

He said that in agreeing with Prime Minister Mottley on the nomination, he made it clear that in the absence of a referendum on the matter, there should be a vote by all representatives in Parliament, by secret ballot if an actual ballot became necessary.

“All of the above is important for two good, very big reasons: What we do today and will do over the next weeks and months ahead represents the further indigenization of the processes and institutions relative and relevant to the advancement and maturation of our democracy. As far as is practical, this process today and others of this nature must be insulated from partisan politicization,” the Opposition Leader said. (DP)