By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunmedia.net

FORMER Progressive Liberal Party Cabinet minister George Smith expressed disappointment yesterday in the conclusions of the Constituencies Commission to recommend only one additional seat to Parliament before the next general election.

House Speaker Dr Kendal Major confirmed last week that 39 seats will be contested next year, with the additional seat being the return of the St Cecilia constituency in New Providence.

Portions of Fort Charlotte, Bains Town and Grants Town, Centerville and Englerston will be redrawn to form that new constituency, he said.

This comes after The Tribune reported last Monday that the commission had recommended the addition of one seat in New Providence and was eyeing the return of St Cecilia.

Mr Smith, however, said the conclusions of the commission constitutes a failure to follow the Constitution.

He felt the MICAL constituency should have been broken into two, Bimini and the Berry Islands should have been made into a single seat and a constituency should have been formed in Central Abaco, separate from South Abaco.

“I was surprised to read that the speaker says the commission is nearing its end and there are going to be 39 seats in the next House and only one additional one and that one will be in New Providence to re-establish the St Cecilia constituency,” he said yesterday. “The last four boundaries commissions, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012, I considered their work to result in a bad report that didn’t give serious consideration and respect to the Constitution. I had great hope that this particular Constituencies Commission review would have redressed the wrongs and injustices of past commissions. I thought this would be different because I had great hope for those members who were appointed to the commission.

“I was called and asked where would a division be in a two seat Exuma. When asked, I had every right to assume there were discussions about re-establishing Exuma to a two seat island, after it lost a seat years ago,” he explained.

The Constitution says Constituencies Commissions should “be guided by the general consideration that the number of voters entitled to vote for the purposes of electing every member of the House of Assembly shall, so far as is reasonably practicable, be the same and the need to take account of special consideration such as the needs of sparsely populated areas, the practicability of elected members maintaining contact with electors in such areas, size, physical features, natural boundaries and geographical isolation.”

To this, Mr Smith said: “These boundaries commissions have appeared to ignore a tenet of the Constitution and have simply reduced numbers and then played around with some lines. They ought to have a review that’s more substantial than changing lines.

“I thought they would come up with a report that is progressive and fair based on what is required of the people in various areas.

“Instead, they have turned their attention to the reconstruction of previous seats but confined that to New Providence, which is unfair to the Family Islands. I believe the commission failed with carrying out the mandate of the constitution and in so doing, the public will come to conclude the same in time.”

Mr Smith, a former MP for Exuma, had asked Prime Minister Perry Christie earlier this year to consider the addition of more constituencies in the Family Islands. He also asked for the Exuma and Ragged Island constituency to be split in two seats, to reflect population changes, and had requested to be the PLP’s 2017 election candidate in the newly created area.