Rory Robinson (right), treasurer of the Rotary Club of Kingston, has the attention of Dr. Lloyd Barnett (left) and Laker Levers, past president of the Rotary Club of Kingston, during the club's weekly luncheon at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, yesterday. Dr. Barnett was the guest speaker. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Constitutional lawyer, Dr. Lloyd Barnett, has dismissed the proposal of Opposition Leader Bruce Golding, that sections 64(1) and 71(3) of the Constitution be amended or removed, if the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) becomes the next government, stating that this was not possible. Mr. Golding said this would be done in the first one hundred days of a JLP government, thus setting a fixed election date for the country.

But, according to Dr. Barnett, "It would not follow the amendment procedures for specially entrenched (provisions of the Constitution) and therefore it could not work." He said the proposal was impractical because what Mr. Golding is seeking to do is remove the discretion that the Prime Minister has to advise what date elections should take place.

Dr. Barnett referred to the contentious issue while speaking at the weekly luncheon of the Rotary Club of Kingston at the Pegasus hotel yesterday.

He said that Mr. Golding was perhaps not properly informed as there is another section of the Constitution, which speaks to the Governor-General, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister (in announcing the date of the election) and that is an entrenched subsection, which Mr. Golding has not quoted or looked at.

Disagreement

However, he said that Section 71(3) to which Mr. Golding referred is "hardly relevant to the question of a fixed election date. That is not really the crux. The crux is whether he could by an ordinary piece of legislation provide for a fixed date, and that is where the disagreement arises," Dr. Barnett said.

In relation to Mr. Golding's comments about elections being tied to the dissolution of Parliament, Dr. Barnett said that this has implications. He said that, "The consequence of that is you can't have a general election without dissolution, and it's the Prime Minister who advises on the date of dissolution at his/her discretion.

"It means then that the election has to be held at a time which is after the dissolution, so you can't fix the time without affecting that right of the Prime Minister, and if that right is entrenched in the Constitution then what he says can't work."