The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister Philip Davis yesterday said he believed that the government will still be able to pass constitutional referendum Bills with or without the vote of Bamboo Town MP Renward Wells.

Mr Davis said it was unfortunate that his former parliamentary secretary attempted to “drop the gauntlet” over such a critical national issue, referring to Mr Wells’ declaration that the country will see the “power of one MP” when the Bills come to a vote in the House of Assembly.

Mr Wells made the comments in response to former PLP Cabinet minister George Smith, who last week said the Bamboo Town MP did not have the political clout to “stand on a bully pulpit and talk tough”.

“I don’t know what is guiding Mr Wells these days,” Mr Davis said. “It’s disappointing to see that he deems it necessary to, as it were, attempt to drop the gauntlet, particularly with respect to a matter such as the referendum.

“This is a matter that impacts our country in a way that the world is still watching,” he said, “and if he’s (Mr Wells) going to vote against the referendum I think the numbers are still there for the PLP to succeed with it. We’ll see what happens.

“When he (Mr Wells) became a part of us, and ran as part of us, he by implication expressly or otherwise agreed to abide by our legislative agenda and there is a forum for him to express his views. If he intends not to express them in that forum then the chips will have to fall where they may.”

In an interview with The Tribune, Mr Wells said that every PLP MP will have to vote in favour of the bills in order to achieve the 75 per cent needed to pass proposed legislation. He maintained that he would not be supporting the bills if the language was not changed.

The anticipated House of Assembly vote on the Christie administration’s proposed constitutional referendum Bills, and subsequent referendum, was postponed in August.

There are 38 seats in the House of Assembly and 75 per cent of that is 28.5 – essentially 29. Free National Movement MPs for Long Island and Central and South Abaco, Loretta Butler-Turner and Edison Key, have said they will support the bills. However, it is unclear whether the remaining six FNM MPs will support legislation in its final form.

Outside the Cabinet Office yesterday, Seabreeze MP Hope Strachan said she did not think the door should be closed on the Bamboo Town MP, adding that each MP was important to the process.

She suggested that Mr Wells could still be persuaded to support the Bills, adding that he was a smart and reasonable person. She also called for a holistic focus on the Bills that considered the entire population and not just personal views.

“I don’t like to see the back and forth going on between people where there seems to be some sort of personal issue which gets in the way of something that is so important,” she said.

“This is a national issue that concerns us not only nationally but also our image internationally. You don’t like to see that coming down to sort of a play of words between two people about who is the strongest and who can have the strongest statement on an issue.”

Ms Strachan added: “What you want to do is you want to see a contemplative, pure consideration of how important the issue is and that is what I would like to see.”