By Vernon Daley, Staff Reporter THE OPPOSITION Jamaica Labour Party is proposing that the House of Representatives should have an odd number of seats, to prevent the type of political stalemate that has gripped Trinidad and Tobago, its CARICOM partner, for the last eight months.
Should it win power in the general election due by year-end, the JLP says it would amend the Constitution to increase the seats in the 60-member House of Representatives.
Parties across the political spectrum have embraced the proposal, agreeing that it would narrow the scope for political controversy in a tight election.
Though political analysts have predicted a close race this coming election, Edward Seaga, the JLP Leader, told journalists last week that it was unlikely that the two major political parties would end up in a tie.
"It's very unlikely, but nevertheless possible," Mr. Seaga said.
It is to guard against this possibility that the JLP has made the proposal, he said.
There have been fears that Jamaica, with its 60-seat elected Parliament, could face political crisis should both the opposition JLP and the ruling People's National Party secure 30 seats a piece in an election.
The apprehension has been fuelled by the deadlock in Trinidad and Tobago which resulted from a tie at the December 2001 poll. Both major political parties, the People's National Movement (PNM) and the United National Congress (UNC) won 18 seats each in the 36-member Parliament.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning of the PNM last Wednesday announced a fresh election for October 7, after repeated efforts to convene Parliament over the last eight months failed.
Maxine Henry-Wilson, general secretary of the PNP, said her party "did not have a problem with the creation of an odd-number Parliament." However, she argued that this should be done on the basis of agreement among all parties based on the constitutional principles laid out for doing so.
"This shouldn't be done whimsically," she said.
Brascoe Lee, spokesman for the New Jamaica Alliance (NJA), said the JLP proposal was "not just common sense but simple logic." He said there were several other constitutional reform proposals which the parties should come together to implement.
Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas, president of United People's Party (UPP), said she was also in support of the proposal but criticised what she suggested was the backward view that presumes that there would never be a place in Jamaica's politics for third parties.
The JLP's proposal is among a package of measures it says it would implement to strengthen the country's Parliament if elected to form the Government. Other measures include:
- Introduction of a republican model of Government with a president
as head of state, selected by the Prime Minister and approved by the House
of Representatives.
- Increasing the number of persons in the Senate and appointing more independent
members from civil society.
- Introduction of legislation to ensure that Ministers of Government and Ministers
of State do not constitute more than half the total membership of the House.
This is to ensure a viable backbench.
- Monthly meetings of the Appropriations Committee, which reviews the
national budget and the Internal and External Affairs Committee, which looks
at matters affecting national security.
Under the JLP's reform plans, the Leader of Government Business in the House and the Senate would have ministerial rank but would not have portfolio responsibilities. This is to "ensure that the House and the Senate are not under the control of the Executive under a JLP Government," the manifesto states.
