Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter

Nicholson

Justice Minister A.J. Nicholson has dismissed a number of the proposals on constitutional reform put forward by Opposition Leader Bruce Golding during the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) 63rd Annual Conference a week ago.

Last Sunday, while addressing the party conference, Mr. Golding gave a commitment to constitutional change if the JLP forms the next government.

However, in his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate yesterday, Senator Nicholson, who is also the Attorney-General, responded specifically to such issues as the separation of powers, fixed election date and term limits, which were specifically supported by Mr. Golding.

Senator Nicholson said there were drawbacks to the separation of powers although, in the pure version of the model, elected representatives of the legislature are allowed to work full time on the formulation of laws for the society and identifying and representing the will of their constituents.

"But there may be practical reasons, as well, to argue against the pure version of separation of powers," he said. "In some cases, when the executive is completely separated from the legislature, there is the risk of gridlock in Government."

He said this is because the legislature may present one perspective on issues and pass laws to reflect that perspective, while the executive may have a completely different perspective.

"Given that the two branches are completely separated, this difference of perspective may hold up affairs of state," he argued.

Regarding the establishment of a fixed election date, which has been endorsed by Mr. Golding, Senator Nicholson said this lacks flexibility as in some cases there may be good reason for the Prime Minister to call a general election before the end of a full term.

"Every single Commonwealth country, falling within the Westminster tradition, leaves the decision on the election date to the Prime Minister," the Attorney-General said.

Approach cautiously

Addressing the issue of term limits for the Prime Minister, which Mr. Golding had said should stand at two, Senator Nicholson said this suggestion should be approached cautiously as the best approach is to leave it to voters to decide whether an individual deserves an additional term.

"One thing is clear, the Leader of the Opposition, unable to have the separation of powers philosophy find any traction in his party, must be extremely careful in trying to yank out of that system, ingredients such as a fixed election date and term limits to be engrafted upon a system of Westminster-style democracy such as ours," said Nicholson.

He urged the Opposition to engage in mutual cooperation with the Government to progress towards meaningful constitutional change.