The Constitutional Reform Commission’s report was a “dud”, says Dr Ronnie Yearwood.
The law lecturer at the University of the West Indies and former president of the Democratic Labour Party has joined dissenters of the recently released report, saying it kept too much of the status quo.
“I’m deeply disappointed in the results of the report . . . . It was below par,” he said yesterday.
“That’s not just my academic opinion, because that’s where I’m speaking from, given this is something that I research and I write on, but it’s the opinion of the general public as well. The commission was lambasted at their first meeting to review the report when people were like, ‘This has not met the mark or the mark of what we expected from a commission that was mandated’.”
Yearwood said the commission had the opportunity to create a constitution to meet the needs of a “21stcentury republican Barbados” but instead the report only upheld the Westminster system and gave Parliament a “free pass”.
Elections
“So we still continue with first-past-the-post [system of elections]. We still continue with the fact that the Prime Minister is allowed to call elections when and where they like.
We still continue the fact that there’s a large concentration of power in the office of the Prime Minister.
Disappointing
“So none of the things that you’ve expected serious reform on have occurred. I think that’s what’s really disappointing, that this report really sees a continuation of the colonial heritage that was part of our Constitution.
“I think what the commission has done is not only disappointing, but it’s also a disservice because they gave Parliament a free pass. So now Parliament can say, ‘Well, you know, this is what the commission produced, this is as good as we’re going to get’ and now doesn’t have to innovate,” he said.
“I think what is really concerning and disappointing is that you had a Constitutional Reform Commission that did not have to just deal with abstract theoretical problems that we face in our political system, but real-life problems where one party has won all the seats. So you can’t even talk about the fact that the issues in our system are abstract or theoretical anymore, they’re real issues. And the commission did nothing to address them or to speak to those concerns or the concerns of the people.”
Yearwood said he hoped there was still time for a follow-up report and that the upcoming report from the Parliamentary Reform Commission was not another “dud”. (CA)
The post Commission’s report a dud, says Yearwood appeared first on nationnews.com.