The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

LONG Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner criticised the government for once again “neglecting the constitutional referendum”, which she says probably will not happen under this Christie administration.

In an interview with The Tribune, Mrs Butler-Turner said the vote, which seeks to enshrine gender equality into the Constitution, has obviously been pushed to the back burner by the government, “who seem to be more concerned with other things”.

In May, Prime Minister Perry Christie told reporters that he hoped to soon address the nation on plans for the proposed vote, which he last said he hoped would happen no later than this month. However, there has been no mention of the referendum since then.

“With every passing day that we do not have this referendum it becomes less and less likely that it will happen under this Christie administration,” Mrs Butler-Turner said when contacted for comment.

“The process that the government entered into from the very beginning was wrong. I’ll add also that the fact that the proposed referendum was dealing with weighty issues and had to compete with others in a sense really muddied the water. So I am of the belief that it probably will not materialise during this term.

“It is sad that they botched the previous referendum (on gender equality) where we saw the dishonesty,” she said, referring to the failed constitutional referendum that was held in 2002. “They (the PLP) campaigned for it in the House (of Assembly), but left the House and campaigned against it. With only two years until the end of the term, I doubt it will happen and the fact that the chairman says he has no idea when it will now happen shows that the Christie administration has lost the political will.”

The government had initially set the constitutional referendum for June 2013, but later changed the date to November 2013.

However, the matter was again postponed, but was expected to take place before the end of June 2014. That deadline was missed and in July 2014 Mr Christie announced the vote would take place on November 6.

The latest delay came last September with Bain and Grants Town MP Dr Bernard Nottage’s announcement that the referendum would take place sometime in 2015. Earlier this year, Mr Christie said he wanted to hold the referendum in June.

On Monday, Dr Nottage refused to answer when asked for an update on the proposed referendum’s timeline. When questioned by The Tribune, Dr Nottage, the minister responsible for elections and referenda, would not provide so much as a tentative date for the referendum.

Dr Nottage told The Tribune: “I am not speaking about the referendum at this time.”

Dr Nottage’s reluctance to speak on the matter came a day after Constitutional Commission Chairman Sean McWeeney said the committee is “just about finished” with its public education campaign.