Chairman of the Parliamentary Reform Commission, Sir Richard Cheltenham, and the Deputy Chairman, Sir Roy Trotman, were sworn in today at State House.
They took the Oath of Office before the Acting President, His Excellency The Very Reverend Dr. Jeffrey Gibson, during a brief ceremony, which was attended by Commissioner Ambassador Elizabeth Thompson and Acting Cabinet Secretary, Selma Green.
Sir Richard told the media moments after the swearing-in that the Commission would start its work in earnest, given the short time frame in which to complete the work and report on the findings.
The former parliamentarian and President of the Senate stressed that the moment was significant since it paved the way for the Commission to conduct its work in a formal way.
Sir Richard gave an insight into some of the work to be done in the coming months, adding that there are a number of minority groups that needed to be represented at the level of Parliament.
“It’s a proud moment in many respects…. We are looking at the whole area of parliamentary reform, which is wide ranging indeed. We have inherited a bicameral system – the House of Assembly and the Senate – and we have to ask ourselves whether we should continue that system or whether we should have one chamber – unicameral.
“We’ve always used the First Past the Post system, which means that who gets the most votes at the polls will determine membership. [There are] questions related to whether [to use] a mixture of First Past the Post and Proportional Representation…. All of these questions will be on the agenda and have to be carefully considered,” Sir Richard emphasised.
He continued: “One of the reasons for maintaining the Senate – the LGBT community, the disabled and other minority groups that have a contribution to make but they cannot get into the House of Assembly, but they still have to be represented and the Senate provides that opportunity. So, we have to be very careful not to abandon institutions that may still have large relevance and usefulness. It is a very challenging and exciting responsibility that we have and we are anxiously looking forward now to getting started not in an informal way, but in a formal manner.”
Meanwhile, former parliamentarian and veteran trade unionist Sir Roy Trotman said he was honoured to be asked by the Government to serve his country.
“And, I hope to be able to examine with the illustrious team that we have the very important question of what is meant by having a voice and the extent that we can, in the new Republic of Barbados, to what extent can we look again at the question of what is democracy and what is representation?
“We don’t have limits on what to do, but we have to be concerned about how we extend the mandate and how we are able to represent all the interests that have to be spoken for in the country. I’m proud to be part of that…. I’m grateful to be given the opportunity,” Sir Roy said.