With town hall meetings on constitutional and electoral reform, now in the third week in the seven electoral districts in Anguilla, on Thursday evenings, Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Kenneth Hodge, says there is tremendous interest in the process.
The first meeting was held in District 1, Island Harbour, on September 2; the second in District 7, West End, on September 9, and the third, in District 2, East End /Sandy Hill, on September16.
Speaking to The Anguillian newspaper on September 11, Mr. Hodge said: “For us [the Anguilla Progressive Movement Government], we are seeking to start the process of constitutional and electoral reform. It took a break prior to the last elections [under the Anguilla United Front Government].
“What we are simply trying to do at this point in time is to get persons’ interest re-awakened in the process. In order to do that, we are moving around in the different districts having town hall meetings and exposing persons to various aspects of the new proposed constitution. We are hoping to do this in each of the seven districts. At the end, we will begin a further process of going through the constitution chapter by chapter.
“Concurrent with that, we are working with the Attorney General’s Chambers to draft the new constitution. What we have now has been submitted to us by the British Government, and so we are seeking to put our local draftsmen to get our constitution done – and that will be used as the document moving forward. We want to do all of this before we-engage the British officials in talks.”
Questioned about the suggested British Government’s version of the 2019 Anguilla constitution, Minister Hodge stated: “We are publishing it on the Government’s website, and anybody who would like to get a copy we can also send it to that person via email.” The British Government’s draft was in fact posted on Monday, September 13, and has seventy pages.
The Minister continued: “It is a full draft which has been submitted to us. It incorporates the discussions that were held previously and there are a lot of footnotes that represented areas of concern or which were not fully fleshed out. In our new draft, we will be looking at all the grey areas, so to speak, and will try to come up with what we consider as what the Anguillian position is in terms of the new constitution.”
Minister Hodge was asked what time limit the Anguilla Government had to conclude the entire process of constitutional and electoral reform.
“There is really no time limit at this point because the COVID situation is very fluid,” he replied. “It has hampered our ability to conduct town hall meetings engaging large numbers of persons; but we have given them the commitment that we are going to start the process – and we will see it through as quickly as possible. That is the understanding we have to move the process forward.
The conversation went on as follows:
“Is the Government’s goal is to complete the process within its current five-year term?
“Yes”, he responded. “Confronted with that, as well, is that we are looking at the whole issue of the electoral boundaries in Anguilla. The questions are: whether we wish to retain the boundaries as they are; whether we should redraw them; whether we should create nine; or whether we would like to see Anguilla as one large electoral district.
“A Boundaries Commission has to be set up, but I thought it is important enough to begin to raise this level of discussion so that persons would begin to think ultimately about what sort of arrangement they would like to see moving forward.”
“What do you think about the interest among the people about constitutional and electoral reform – and some of the points they raised,” Minister Hodge was asked.
“There is tremendous interest, and we are carrying the discussions live,” he answered. “We have seen in some cases well over a thousand are viewing. Those numbers are increasing and we believe that, as we continue with these talks, the interest will continue to grow.”
