BVI should not wait for UK or COI to start constitutional review

Claude Skelton Cline

Political commentator Claude Skelton Cline has bemoaned the fact that nearly five years have elapsed since the BVI first raised the issue of a constitutional review, yet no real action has been taken to date.

The talk show host said he is holding both the former National Democratic Party (NDP) administration as well as present Virgin Islands Party (VIP) government responsible for the failure.

“And it looks like we’re waiting for something else to happen that further delays us,” he stated.

“We should not be waiting for England, we should not be waiting for no report from no COI, we shouldn’t be waiting for nobody. We should be a proactive people, mindful, determinate, about who it is we are going to be as a people and what do we want for ourselves,” Skelton Cline said on his Honestly Speaking radio programme recently.

The talk show host also questioned why the search for a person to chair the review committee should hold up the process.

In June last year, it was announced that a Constitutional Review Commission is slated to be implemented to commence a ‘full review’ of the Virgin Islands Constitution, pending approval from the House of Assembly (HOA).

A motion brought before the HOA for debate on the issue stated in part that it was, “agreed between the United Kingdom government and the Government of the Virgin Islands that the said constitution may be reviewed after 10 years after the date of which it came into force”.

It has now been fourteen years since the Virgin Islands Constitution Order of 2007 came into force.

Meanwhile, Cabinet has announced that it has earmarked funds to make the long-overdue constitutional review a reality.

At Cabinet’s meeting on February 17, leaders agreed that the overall budget for the establishment of the Constitution Review Commission and associated activities will not exceed $300,000.

Drakes_650x200