By Vernon Daley, Staff Reporter
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson fields questions from Gleaner journalists yesterday at his Jamaica House office. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson will not name Independent Senators to serve in the Upper House as he did following his government's landslide victory at the polls in 1997.
Instead, the Prime Minister says he will include among his nominees for the Senate, persons who are not necessarily members of his administration but who would be sympathetic to the government.
"There will be some inclusion of persons who are not regarded as members of the government or party but who one would expect to be supportive, certainly in terms of the voting position of the government and ensure that we can have a majority in both Houses," the Prime Minister said in an interview with Gleaner reporters at Jamaica House yesterday.
At the same time, a release from the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday indicated that Delano Franklyn, chief advisor to the Prime Minister, as well as Deika Morrison, a former executive assistant to the Minister of Finance and Planning, have been named to the Senate.
With six Government Senators still to be named, it was not immediately clear whether Mr. Franklyn and Ms. Morrison will be the replacements for businessman Douglas Orane and political scientist Professor Trevor Munroe, who served as the Independent Senators in the last Parliament.
Under Jamaica's parliamentary system, the Prime Minister is allowed to name 13 of the 21 Senators, while the Leader of the Opposition is allowed to name the other eight.
Mr. Patterson's decision not to reappoint Independents in the Senate, comes against the background of the People's National Party's (PNP) reduced majority in the House, following the October 16 general election. The governing party's seat count slipped from 48 to 34 in the 60-seat House of Representatives, while the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has pushed its number of seats up from 12 to 26.
Meanwhile, Mr. Patterson lauded the two former Independent Senators who, he said, made a very important contribution to the parliamentary system.
Said the Prime Minister: "I think the Independent Senators have made a contribution ... I would like to see in the new Constitution, when we come to the appointment of the Senate, some space that would allow for the appointment of Independent Senators."
The Constitution Commission, which met throughout the early 1990s to look at reforming the Constitution, recommended that the Senate should be expanded from its current 21 members to 35 members. Under this arrangement, the government would appoint 15 persons, the Opposition 10 and the other 10 drawn from society. In other words, 10 people would be Independent Senators.
