On his weekly Facebook programme ‘Issues in the News,’ Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC said that work aimed at constitutional reform, as well as amendments proposed to the Narcotics Act have already begun.
He said on Tuesday that the respective committees— the Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform—and the Special Committee on the Amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act both met on Tuesday in the National Assembly to map out their work plans.
Nandlall who is Chairman of both committees said that in the case of the constitution reform committee, its agenda will cater for the inclusion of all the work done by previous committees, singling out primarily the Constitution Reform Commission of 1999/2001.
Formed by the Constitutional Reform Commission Act of 1999, Nandlall said there are certain recommendations that came out of that 1999/2001 process which were never implemented; but noted that the current committee will be compiling those amendments to form part of its work.
Noting that some constitutional reforms can only be achieved by a two-thirds majority, the Attorney General said that it would necessitate bilateral cooperation between the two major political parties in the Parliament.
It will “require a consensus if anything substantive and substantial is to be achieved… So we will have to have a lot of consensual decisions going forward,” he said; while adding that it is significant that “what I believe all the political parties have agreed to, is a publicly consultative engagement.”
Against this background he said he foresees no issue, disagreement or controversy being evoked with that aspect of the process.
“I believe that all the political parties in their manifesto promised that the engagement in relation to constitutional reform would be a public one and would involve all the important stakeholder-organizations in the country in a consultative engagement,” he said.
Last July, Nandlall had disclosed that the National Assembly’s Constitutional Reform Committee met only twice for the year due to COVID-19 constraints but at the same time had said that that should not be seen as non-commitment to the process by the PPP/C government.
Meanwhile, Nandlall said that at the meeting regarding proposed amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, it was decided that the public would be invited through advertisements or by notices, to make their contributions/suggestions in writing to the Committee.
He said that they will thereafter be reviewed and the Committee would determine whether it wishes to hear oral presentations from any of the contributors.
In the vein of ensuring that this exercise is publicly consultative also, the AG said that where it is found that an important stakeholder organization may have omitted to make submissions in writing, the committee would consider writing to such organization to ensure its input.
“So work has begun in that Committee as well and hopefully we will accelerate the work of those committees in due course,” he said.
A year ago, the PPP/C government proposed to remove custodial sentences for possession of up to 30 grammes of cannabis.
The amendments had been promised by the previous APNU+AFC government but were not delivered.
Soon after the PPP/C took office in August of 2020, Nandlall who also holds the portfolio of Minister of Legal Affairs, had outlined the legislative agenda for his ministry and he had said that reform of the election laws and constitution were high on the agenda.
