Prominent jurist calls for revamp of Caribbean constitutions

A prominent Caribbean jurist has called for constitutional change that would give the region\'s people more say in who governs them, thereby reducing the power of prime ministers, according to a report on www.cananews.net.



Dame Bernice Lake believes the current system under which the prime minister is the only one who chooses cabinet members gives the holder of that office and their political party too much power.



In an interview she recommended that there should be two distinct general elections under a system that ensures Cabinet members cannot be lawmakers and lawmakers cannot sit in cabinet.



\"We should look at a structure of government in which the executive authority for the administration of the affairs of the nation is directly elected by the people for that purpose and not vicariously through the legislature,\" Dame Bernice said.



\"You come before the people for a post to sit in and to comprise the cabinet and you show your slate, you show what you are capable of for that part in the executive authority so that you are directly elected and not vicariously because you\'ve got a seat and you comprise this amorphous body called the legislature out of which the executive is derived.



\"I\'m suggesting it should be separated, split apart and be directly elected by the people and be directly answerable to the people rather than having the executive answerable to the people via the legislature,\" she added.



Bernice said the changes she is proposing would, at any given time, more easily reflect the will of the people.



Dame Bernice was born in Anguilla and was chief architect of the Anguilla Constitution in 1975 and a member of the team which framed the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda in 1981.