The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AFTER Parliament was prorogued yesterday, Chief Clerk David Forbes said the government will now have to roll out all of the “fanfare” that usually precedes a new session of the House of Assembly.

Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle, in his capacity as Provost Marshal, read two proclamations outside the House of Assembly yesterday. The first came yesterday morning, proroguing Parliament.

The second came at 2pm and announced that the next session of Parliament will be on September 22.

According to Mr Forbes, what unfolded yesterday was nothing unusual.

“That usually happens,” he said. “You’ll usually have two proclamations because we have several of those on our records where there was a prorogation and then another proclamation setting the date for the next sitting of the House.

“So, that’s not unusual. Once you prorogue the Parliament, when you have the first meeting after the prorogation, you need to have the whole fanfare such as the Speech from the Throne and a new legislative agenda.”

Former Chief Clerk Maurice Tynes had a different view, saying given an uptick in COVID-19 cases, the provost marshal should not have been made to come to Parliament Square twice to read separate proclamations.

Mr Tynes said he was surprised by yesterday’s events.

“I am surprised,” Mr Tynes said. “I don’t think you should play games with the Constitution of The Bahamas. You don’t do that. I don’t understand why they would (present) separate two proclamations, even if they wanted to at least let him read them separately while he was there at the same time as the first time. I would have thought they would have done it that way given these COVID times.”

He also said: “It is very unusual for that to be done, but I think if I can remember correctly something like that was done before…where they separated the two proclamations.

“I just think it would be more efficient to just include it in one proclamation and not cause the provost marshal to have to come back a second time.

“That’s a very weird way to do it to make the marshal come back a second time, which it could have been included in the first one. It's very unusual and I don’t understand for the life of me why they did it that way.”

Mr Tynes suggested the move was tied to independent House Speaker Halson Moultrie's strained relationship with the government.

“The Speaker was supposed to do his open Parliament last week Wednesday and they decided to bring the Parliament back the day before.

“Then today the Speaker was supposed to have an open Parliament at 10am and they brought the proclamation at 9.30am. So, it looks like they were trying to thwart the Speaker’s open Parliament,” Mr Tynes said.