Changes to House Speaker election proposed by minority opinion

The government on Tuesday introduced three historic constitutional amendments to Parliament, including widening constituency size variation, electing the Speaker from outside the House of Assembly, and increasing ministers’ speaking rights in both chambers — proposals the Constitutional Reform Commission Chair Christopher Blackman revealed were not endorsed by the commission.

And the retired jurist expressed bewilderment at the current status of the report on constitutional change his commission made when it wrapped up in 2024.

In another proposed change under the Constitution (Amendment) Bill and the Parliament Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, tabled in the House of Assembly on Tuesday by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the Attorney General would be permitted to speak on any bill or resolution before either the House or Senate because those documents first have to be certified by the AG prior to reaching the chambers.

The change regarding the election of a Speaker introduced on Tuesday reflected a minority report by two members of another body, the Parliamentary Reform Commission, according to the retired jurist.

But Blackman told Barbados TODAY that two of those proposed amendments were never part of his commission’s proceedings. “They have two other amendments that went through today, neither of which was something that was ever canvassed by the commission. One was canvassed, that is, with the minister being able to speak in either House. But we didn’t agree with that.

“The prime minister moved amendments to the constitution for creating a speakership that is not from among the House members — an outsider — which was not a consideration for my commission, but the other one [Parliamentary Reform Commission – PRC] spoke about it. And it was not proposed by the majority, but it was proposed by a minority recommendation of [Senator] Liz Thompson and [cardiologist] Dr Richard Ishmael.”

The prime minister did acknowledge that the government intentionally agreed to accept the minority opinion of the PRC.

Mottley told the House: “The Parliamentary Reform Commission felt that we should keep the status quo; the minority opinion felt that it should go. The government finds itself associated with the minority opinion because I have seen over 31 years in this chamber and three-and-a-half years in the other chamber, the extent to which it does put a serious hardship on speakers, because people feel you are not representing them, you are not speaking for them, not hearing you talking about them. I don’t think it is fair, and as we move forward, this is one of the things that we would wish to do.”

Blackman also said he did not know the status of the recommendations in the draft report made to the government.

He said: “We did our work, we canvassed views. I reported to Barbadians at the beginning of the year, fifth of January at the Frank Collymore Hall. It was carried, and after that, other than the initial reports that came out immediately thereafter, there has been silence. The Parliamentary Reform Commission report was tabled in Parliament, and they had debate on it. That has not been the fate of the CRC report.

He added: “I have been asked repeatedly by a number of people, where it is at; and the candid answer is, I have no idea… absolutely no idea where it is at. I have heard some things unofficially, but I can’t put any credence in them. Certainly, I have had no correspondence since I demitted office on any matter, as to where matters are going.”

Prime Minister Mottley told the House that the government had put a pause on the draft constitution report in order to address what she termed a major omission where the responsibilities of citizens were not included to complement the rights of citizens.

“So, the government engaged some work to be able to see how best we can build on the work of the Constitution Reform Commission,” Mottley said. “I have seen some preliminary stuff coming from them and I expect that the full report would be in hand within two weeks, which would then, once Cabinet approves what there is, we can have a separate chapter focused only on responsibilities.”

Under the historic changes introduced on Tuesday, the difference between constituencies is to be allowed to move from 80 per cent to 120 per cent to avoid almost two-thirds of the constituency boundaries being significantly altered; a Speaker of the House is to be elected from outside of the House; and a Cabinet minister must have the right to speak in either chamber only about his portfolio but without the right to vote.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb