Opposition rejects claim it boycotted committee examining constitutional reform bill

By Halshane Burke    

 

Opposition Leader Mark Golding has dismissed claims that the parliamentary opposition has boycotted the joint select committee examining the constitutional reform bill.

 

The opposition has missed the two most recent meetings of the committee, the latest of which was held Wednesday.

 

Mr. Golding had previously declared that he would personally be attending the meetings as there were a number of recommendations with which he took issue.

 

When asked by Radio Jamaica News about the parliamentary opposition's lack of participation in the deliberations, Mr. Golding reiterated that the government must first clarify its position on the retention of the Privy Council. 

 

"The opposition has stated that we are pausing our participation on that committee because we would like the Prime Minister to say to the country what the position of the Jamaica Labour Party, which he leads, is, on the matter of access to our final court," he stressed. 

 

"Currently our final court is the Privy Council in London. It's the king's court; the orders of that court are made in the king's name. So if we're going to be establishing our full sovereignty under the system of a republic, with a Jamaican president, we should also move away from the monarch's court which has been with us since the 1830s, and it is a fundamentally inaccessible court," said the Opposition Leader. 

 

He said after the Prime Minister has made his position clear then an assessment would be done to determine the way forward.