Campbell responds

Parliament said a loud and clear no to a National Advisory Council of Elders (NACE) and civil society representation in parliament, now the head of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) has defended the commission’s decision to include these items in their recommendations.{{more}}

In his public service television series “The Law and You”, Parnel Campbell Q.C said last week Monday that in the course of the public consultations held by the commission there was no doubt that the public wished to have civil society representation in Parliament.

“We debated long and hard the question as to whether we should have a Senate for St Vincent and the Grenadines, like most of the other members of CARICOM. Bear in mind that a Senate is composed of people purely non-elected,” Campbell explained.

He said that he disagreed with the legislators’ suggestion that the involvement of civil society in parliament would be undemocratic.

When the final report was debated in parliament, speakers, from both the Government and opposition sides dismissed the idea of civil society representation in parliament, saying that persons wishing to be in parliament must face the electorate.

Even current senators expressed their disagreement with the concept of civil society in parliament in addition to the present structure of senate appointments.

Campbell said that at the inception of the commission, the Speaker of the House, the Prime Minister and the Opposition made it clear that they wanted a new constitution that could provide for greater people participation in the process of governance.

`“The very composition of the Constitutional Review Commission convinced us that our political leaders had been serious in their pronouncements. Of the 25 Commissioners provided for by the CRC Resolution of October 2002, no fewer than 15 positions on the CRC were allocated by parliament to the representatives of civil society,” Campbell said.(KJ)