CRF opposes executive president

This is one of the proposals the Constitution Reform Forum (CRF) wants the Government to consider in a draft constitution which recommends replacing the office of the prime minister with an executive president.

The CRF, which released a document of recommendations for constitutional reform at Fernandes Compound, Laventille, yesterday, said an executive president would have as much, and even more, power as the prime minister currently has under the 1976 Republican Constitution.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning presented a draft constiutution to Parliament last month which is to be presented for public comment by a committee.

However, the CRF has taken its own steps to mobilise public opinion with the presentation yesterday of the document, “Let us remake our constitution: Towards a people’s manifesto for constitution reform.”

One of its proposals is that the prime minister should be elected from among nominees who did not have to be a member of a political party, CRF chairpeson Olabisi Kuboni said yesterday.

Kuboni said a constitution reform secretariat should be set up so the public could have a say in a new constitution.

Trade unionist David Abdullah, a member of CRF, said the forum supported an election process that reflected the broader will of the people.

The CRF was formed in April 2001 by concerned citizens who felt the Republican Constitution did not, and still does not, address the society’s needs. Kuboni said CRF’s members beleive the current Constitution lets successive governments “off the hook”, allowing them to reign freely and manage the country’s natural resources which are owned by the people.