Chairman of the Parliamentary Reform Commission (PRC) Sir Richard Cheltenham is proposing that the number of seats in the House of Assembly be increased from 30 to 31 or 33 to avert “a major constitutional crisis” in the event of a hung Parliament.
He is also in favour of an opposition party which fails to win seats in a general election, being allowed to appoint senators once they receive a certain percentage of votes.
Sir Richard placed those issues on the table for discussion on Thursday night, as he addressed the fourth PRC town hall meeting which was held at the Alexandra School.
Explaining his rationale for suggesting an odd number of representatives in the House of Assembly, he said this would prevent two political parties from winning an equal number of seats.
“So, if we just conclude the elections and each side has 15, we have a major constitutional crisis on our hands. That, too, needs to be addressed. I do not favour taking away any constituency. So we must have a house of 31 or 33 members, but the number must not be even. It must be uneven,” declared Sir Richard.
On the issue of allocation of seats in the Senate in the event of a political party’s clean sweep in elections, as happened in the 2018 and 2022 polls, he referred to the report of the 1998 Sir Henry Forde-led Constitutional Review Commission which recommended that the Senate maintain 21 members, and that six of them be appointed by the President as opposition senators, provided the opposition party received at least 10 per cent of the total votes.
“One view is that even if the opposition gets no seats in the House of Assembly – and that has happened twice in recent years – but gets at least 20 per cent of the popular vote, at least four seats should be provided the opposition in the Senate, and that view is intended to take care of the seat situation which occurred twice in recent years where the opposition got no seats at all,” Sir Richard explained.
“I do not like the percentage to be as low as 10 per cent, because it may encourage a lot of splinter groups to get at least 10 per cent to get some form of recognition. I would put that percentage at more like 15 per cent or 20 per cent.”
“We need to act soon with it because having occurred twice, we can never say it will never happen again. We simply have a duty to provide for that eventuality. It would be appropriate to consider whether 10 per cent is not too low as suggested by the Forde Commission and it should not rather be 20 per cent,” he added.
Currently, if there is a leader of the opposition, that individual is allowed to appoint two of the 21 Senators, while the Government appoints 12 and the other seven are appointed by the President as independent senators.
The topic for Thursday night’s discussion was The Role of the Senate: Is it an outdated talk shop or a useful institution? How can it be made more inclusive of citizens’ voices and broader interests, thereby enlarging our democracy?
Sir Richard acknowledged that some people have questioned whether the Senate is necessary.
The former president of the Senate said that issue should be considered by the PRC, which began its work in June this year, but he believed the Upper House should be kept.
He explained that it offered the opportunity for individuals with “specialised knowledge and experience but no interest in elective politics, to make a viable contribution to the public life of the country”.
On the matter of whether senators should be fully nominated or partly nominated and partly elected, Sir Richard said: “My own view is that if we wish to have a more inclusionary society at the representational and parliamentary level, the Senate is necessary to make sure that no category of Barbadian who has a contribution to make is denied, whether it is a handicap, the elderly, members of the LGBTQ community, the youth, [or] women who, in many respects, are under-represented in Parliament,” he said
Deputy president of the Senate Elizabeth Thompson, who is one of the PRC commissioners, noted that while members of the commission express their own views, no decisions have yet been made as the public consultations are ongoing.
“We may have strong views and we do have vigorous discussion, but we are not yet at the stage where we have started to deliberate because we are still taking the views and opinions of the public. We want your views to inform our decisions,” she explained.
Former president of the Senate Kerry-Ann Ifill agreed with Sir Richard that the Upper House of Parliament is still needed. However, she said the time had come for change, declaring that “there is an imbalance in the structure of the Senate in numbers”.
“It may have been limited in its capacity, and perhaps, this is the time, this is the opportunity for us to reform and adjust. But the removal of the Upper Chamber would represent, in my view, a travesty at this time in our existence in the republic we call our home, Barbados,” she said.
Attorney-at-law Vere Brathwaite said she supported tweaking the structure of the Senate, but insisted “it should not be done so that the Government’s programme is frustrated or undermined”, otherwise there would be “chaos, confusion, uncertainty and disorder”.
“You might consider including committees either in the Lower House or in the Senate or both. You might call them citizens assemblies, counsels of elders,” she suggested.
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