The Constitutional and Electoral Reform Commission in Anguilla, has tasked itself with completing the initial draft of its recommendations by April 4, beginning village consultative meetings on April 8 and submitting its final report to Executive Council by June 2.

Justice Mitchell

The Commission is presently engaged in bringing various experts to the island to speak about how they dealt with constitutional matters in their own territories. Last weekend the Chairman of the Review Commission in the Cayman Islands, Benson Ebanks, was the speaker at the second public meeting held by the Anguilla Commission on March 17 at the Teachers’ Resource Centre. He spoke about the processes, issues and difficulties his team has had to deal with and what had been achieved so far.

Mr. Benson Ebanks

At that meeting, Chairman of the Anguilla Commission, Justice Don Mitchell, outlined some of the plans which his team will follow. “At the end of these meetings, when we are getting the input from overseas experts, we will complete drafting and discussing our recommendations amongst ourselves at meetings and by emails with members of the public,” he explained. “We will do that by the 4th of April. We might have to go over it, but that is the initial deadline we have set for ourselves…

“Primary responsibility for the initial drafting of recommendations has been allocated.

Mr. Claudel Romney

Reverend Weekes has agreed to be the primary lead person considering recommendations on powers of the Governor. Mrs. Petty-Barrett, is going to be the prime and lead person considering all the recommendations on belonger status; and Mr. Claudel Romney is going to concentrate on the House of Assembly, Public Accounts Committee and ant-corruption measures; Mr. Stanley Reid will be the primary lead on initial recommendations on the Executive, the Public Service; Mr. Calvert Carty has been allocated principal responsibility for drafting recommendations for discussion with the public on belonger status and I will offer to do the rest.”

Mr. Mitchell went on: “Once we have done that, we will then divide our

Mr. Brent Davis

recommendations into the areas of the constitution…We will hold public meetings to discuss our draft recommendations on Saturday evenings, commencing on the 8th of April, four days after we have finished our drafting…It is necessary for all Anguillians to be convinced that at least we made an effort to include those overseas. The budget provides for us to attend public meetings in places of overseas Anguillian concentration of residence namely St. Thomas, St Martin/St.Maarten, Slough, London; New Jersey, New York and Toronto. Government has approved that. We are going to be coordinating with the Anguillian committees in those cities…

“We will be refining our recommendations, as we go from Saturday to Saturday discussing our initial draft recommendations, to take account of the inputs that we will be receiving and we will complete our report by the 23rd of May. We will present our final report to the public to let everyone know what we will be reporting. No one will be able to say that we gave a secret report to Government… We are going to submit our [final] report to the Executive Council by the 2nd of June… We have been given six months [but] this target gives us four months. We have given ourselves a two-month leeway in case we need more time.”

Justice Mitchell said a series of villages meetings had already been planned to ascertain the views of the people of Anguilla.

Ebanks: What Mama Says Goes

Meanwhile, Mr. Ebanks said that his Constitutional Review Commission in the Cayman Islands had completed its job more than a year ago or more. The recommendations were forwarded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and with the exception of two very minor amendments, they were accepted.

Members of the Constitutional & Electoral Reform Commission and members of the public

He explained that the Caymanian Commission provided an appendix to its report which set out how the recommendations would fit in a constitution. The draft was sent back to the Governor’s Office for presentation to the House of Assembly for adoption. One of the current road blocks is particularly the single-member constituency issue which is to be discussed by a visiting British team.

Among other matters, he noted that a United Nations Committee of 24 Resolution had put forward three options to Britain for constitutional development in the Cayman Islands, Anguilla and other Overseas Territories: independence, assimilation and association. “I suspect that in Anguilla and I know that in Cayman, no majority of voters want independence so that has been struck from the list, he stated. “I don’t believe that there are too many of us who want to become British either so that too has been struck from the options. That leaves us with the only option of association; and that is what we are subscribing to and it is this association that the United Kingdom has now asked to review and modernise. So I think that they are living up to their obligations to us as the administering authority. ”
Mr. Ebanks held the view however that as long as the various islands were colonies of the United Kingdom that the UK Government “have a right, and will demand that right, to have the final say.” He added: “It is no different from a parent. You give your children as much leeway as you can, but in the final analysis, what mama says, goes.”

He did not share the view that any constitutional advancement should be the subject of a referendum. He said that a referendum should be used very sparingly by any administration and he could not see how an entire constitution could be based on a referendum since such a course of action was a yes or no vote. “Surely, you could have a referendum on whether one wanted to go for an internally self-governing constitution and you could say yes or no to that, but certainly, the detail of a constitution could never be the subject of a referendum,” he stated.

Brent Romney: APP To Submit Proposals

Members of the Constitutional & Electoral Reform Commission and members of the public

Chairman of the Anguilla Progressive Party, Brent Romney in Anguilla, said that like the people of the Cayman Islands, Anguillians were not in favour of independence and “definitely do not want to be assimilated.” He believed therefore that Anguilla’s option would be associated status.

Mr. Romney said he would be presenting in writing the party’s views on such matters as belonger status, the powers of the Governor and other matters of concern.

He further said: “I would like to see a referendum on key issues in the constitutional process in terms of the electoral system…Another aspect of the referendum would be the at-large seating and the options for associated statehood or independence – just to make it official to have a document saying that the majority of Anguillians prefer associated state. I would like to see these and other things and they include what we will be presenting in our paper. In terms of belonger status, we can consider – do we want children born in Anguilla regardless of where their children are from to be Anguillians –yes or no? I think we can pick certain things out of the whole process and put them up for a referendum which is a very reliable part of democracy.”

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