Constitutional bills expected in March

The Nassau Guardian

Constitutional bills expected in March

Chairman of the Constitutional Commission Sean McWeeney said yesterday the bills for the promised constitutional referendum on gender equality may be tabled in the House of Assembly next month.

Prime Minister Perry Christie had originally promised that the bills would be tabled by the end of 2013 and passed in both the House and Senate by February, in time for a constitutional referendum by the end of June.

McWeeney said the four draft bills are before the commission and should be presented to Cabinet in the next two to three weeks.

“There is one bill for each question to ensure that voters can have a real say and understanding,” he said.

“Some people may agree with some questions and disagree with others.”

Once Cabinet has approved the bills they will be tabled in the House of Assembly.

McWeeney said the government’s mid-year budget communication may slow down the process.

“That takes up a lot of Parliament’s time,” he said.

The government intends to bring its mid-year budget to the House of Assembly on February 12, Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis told The Nassau Guardian.

Last October, Christie announced that a constitutional referendum would take place before the end of June after a public education campaign.

Originally, he had promised the referendum will take place by June 2013.

The government hopes to “amend the citizenship provisions of the constitution to achieve full equality between men and women with respect to the acquisition and transmission of Bahamian nationality”.

Christie said the government also proposes to expand the definition of discrimination in Article 26 of the constitution to “include discrimination based on sex as a prohibited ground so that women would be able to enjoy the same level of protection from discrimination that men already enjoy”.

The government has also promised to introduce value-added tax (VAT) on July 1.

When asked if this would be too much for the public McWeeney said he didn’t think so.

“The two subjects are just so diametrically opposed to each other that I really don’t see any clash there,” he said.

“Mind you it will involve some division of the public’s attention, but I don’t see that as being a major problem.”

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