Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
National Security Minister Dr. Peter Phillips.

Minister with responsibility for electoral matters, Dr. Peter Phillips, said the establishment of the Electoral Commission provides greater autonomy and increased responsibilities for the newly-appointed commissioners.

Eight of the nine commissioners were presented with their Instrument of Office by Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall during a ceremony at King's House on November 29.

Director of Elections, Danville Walker, is to be appointed a commissioner after the current eight commissioners make a formal recommendation to the Governor- General for his appointment. This will increase the number of selected commissioners to five, one more than the four nominated commissioners.

Weight shifted

According to Dr. Phillips, the relative weight of the political appointees in relation to the selected members was now decisively shifted in favour of civil society.

Dr. Phillips, who represented Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at the ceremony, said he hoped that the process to incorporate the Electoral Commission Act in the Constitution would not be protracted. It took 27 years for the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) to be changed to an Electoral Commission. The EAC was established in 1979.

Commenting on the issue of constitutional reform, Dr. Phillips argued that there should be a willingness to compromise in reaching solutions "which might not be ideal in the eyes of each party, but which represents the possibility of forward movement".

Selected commissioners include Dorothy Pine-McLarty, Professor Errol Miller and Dr. Herbert Thompson who served as independent members of the EAC and a new appointee, retired judge Justice Clarence Walker. The nominated commissioners are: Donald Buchanan and Linton Walters of the People's National Party and Karl Samuda and Tom Tavares- Finson representing the Jamaica Labour Party.