Opposition Leader Marlon Penn has said that he has no problem bringing a no-confidence motion to the House of Assembly against the present VIP Administration but warned the procedure would all be in vain as the sitting government has the overwhelming majority to vote down such a motion.
Penn’s comment came during a recent broadcasting of the Cut Deep show which is hosted by community activist Cindy Rosan-Jones.
The question was presented to Penn on whether he would take such a motion to the House of Assembly if an overwhelming number of the population had rallied in favour of bringing forward the motion.
He replied, “I am a representative of the people Cindy. If the position is clear that we need to do this, well then, we need to do it. The reality is that the government has the numbers, it will be a debate in the House on the vote of no confidence. I don’t foresee a vote of no confidence passing in the House. I’m sure we’re going to have a difficulty even getting it on the Order Paper because it has to pass through the Speaker. It is not one of those resolutions that you can bring on the floor, you have to give notice.
Consequences of the election
Penn, while reiterating the difficulties a no-confidence motion would face if brought at this present time, said the present political atmosphere in the BVI are as result of the decision made at the polls during the last election.
“I have no difficulty bringing a motion of no confidence Cindy, the challenge is that democracy is democracy and the reality is that the premier and his government has been elected. Unfortunate situations are occurring but elections have consequences and the unfortunate consequences of elections are what we’re seeing right now,” he stated.
He added, “But if the people are saying that they want a vote of no confidence, in fact I have no difficulty bringing it to the House once my colleagues support and the Opposition supports and we have a debate and we let the chips fall where they may.”
Recommendations for steps forward
The Opposition Legislator also recommended a number of alternative solutions he believes need to be considered for the future, to give the people more power in holding a sitting government accountable for their actions.
To achieve this, he says some adjustments will need to take place to the BVI’s legislation during the upcoming Constitutional Reform.
“One of the things that I suggested when I discussed with my audience at the Commission of Inquiry, was a recall provision. There are some legislatures that have a recall provision where once you get a certain percentage of votes within the populous or within a certain constituency, you could then have the ability to recall your legislator if you don’t believe that they are performing to your best interest. Another thing that I’ve suggested is to have what we call term limits, particularly for premier. I know that Cayman Islands has the ability to put term limits in place to avoid this mentality… So there are options that we can do and I think we are going through the process of Constitutional Review and these are things that the public needs to be engaged with,” Penn explained.