Five year terms & national elections for Premier & Deputy- Shaina M. Smith
Ms Smith was the guest of Mr Claude O. Skelton- Cline on his weekly radio show, Honestly Speaking, aired yesterday February 27, 2018 on ZBVI 780 AM at 5:00 P.M.
Premier & Deputy Premier chosen by national Election
“We should be able to have basically national election for the top two seats, that would be the Premier and Deputy Premier, versus what we see happen election morning, who has majority and then they figure it out,” Ms Smith believes.
She is of the opinion that every citizen should have a say as to who leads the country and not only who leads their district. In the present system elections are done to determine District Representatives and those candidates running At Large and subsequently the cabinet is chosen based on who won seats. Citizens has limited input in the decision as to who will lead the Territory for the next four years.
The social and political commentator even suggested changing the electoral term to five years instead of four, claiming “I would do five, because you can’t get nothing do meaningful in four years.” Ms Smith added that she is in favour of limited terms, with two consecutive terms being the maximum.
Ministerial leaders should be At Large Territorial Candidates
Under this present system there are four At Large members in the Cabinet, which means that only four persons were selected by the territory as a whole. Ms Smith stated that, “With ministers I would want to see them to be at large territorial candidates, for the cabinet.”
She went on to explain that, “It changes up the whole dynamic too in terms of how persons are able to become entrenched in a district and hold a seat in the House of Assembly, making national decisions when at the end of the day their only allegiance is to their district if they want to come back.
Run the government like a business
Transparency and accountability had always been a sore issue with the present administration. This Ms Smith, who contested the 2015 snap elections with the National Democratic Party (NDP) Government but lost to incumbent First District Representative and Opposition Leader Hon Andrew A. Fahie, thinks is an ineffective way of running the country. She says, “We need to think about government like how we would run a cooperation. People don’t put CEO’s and entrench then for 25 years into the corporation, because the corporation has to continue to grow, has to continue to respond to the needs of its clients, which in our case is our public and making sure that whatever you are doing is in the best interest of the shareholders, which again is the public.”
Ms Smith advocates that the public has to hold the government accountable and demand transparency. “We have to hold people who we are paying a salary very month responsible for what we are paying them to do and if they are not doing it we need to find people who will do it.”
Changes to the Speech from the Throne
On March 1, 2018 at the first sitting of the House of Assembly for the year, the Speech from the Throne will be read. Ms Smith agrees that The Speech from the Throne too should be changed. According to her, the “whole ritual of it has to change.”
“You can have a Speech from the Throne but let it be the UK telling us what they are going to do for us for the next how many years and we benefit from the relationship we have from them, not them kind of borrowing from the local government.”
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30 Responses to “Five year terms & national elections for Premier & Deputy- Shaina M. Smith”
1. A definite date for elections
2. Voting for the premier
we are in 2018 and I find it funny that only a select few actually knows when we will have an election.....
I think the premiership is a very serious position and the people should have a better say in who runs our country(not handpicked by his party affiliates)
Do research before you bloging piss
elections. The plane twice had engine problems and Liat refused to discuss. A lot of funny things happenned
on that flight. I'm sure Orlando is greatful he wasn't on it.
Keep talker out of politics because they don't love people. They only know them when them want to be elected.
1. Throne Speech: Agree that the purpose and format of the Throne speech should be changed. The Governor should not be reading a speech constructed by the local government. Instead, as Ms. Smith suggested, the Throne speech should be about the UK plan of action for the coming budget year and future years.
2. Running Government as a Business: Government cannot run fully as a business. Businesses can choose what customers they want to serve; government cannot select customers it wants to serve; it has to serve the whole territory both resident and visitors. Yes, it can adopt/adapt some business best management practice (BMP).
3. At Large Rep as Ministers: Ministerial slots can be effectively manage by either District Reps or At Large Reps. It comes down to strong and effective leadership by the Premier. Premier cannot let ministeries be run like a government within a government. Premier must be in control. What if the winning party has no At large Reps?
4. Electing Premier and Deputy Premier Nationally: The BVI currently operates under the West Minister form of government. To change the way how the Premier and Deputy Premier are now selected would require a change of government system and a constitutional change. What happens if a candidate for Premier amass the most votes but his/her party does not have enough candidates to form a government? What if a candidate for Premier wins the most votes but his/her Deputy Premier looses what happens? Will the Premier and Deputy Premier candidates with the most votes will be be Premier and Deputy Premier and have to work with other represensatives perhaps with a different ideology? Is this a workable team?
Instead they start a million projects with big budgets to give the illusion of progress. If you know anything about prestidigitation you’d know it’s all about the art of misdirection and distraction. Politics is like too but this isn’t a birthday party for four year olds so we know better. The leaders of this country have failed us in our time of need and they’re still spinning things like it’s a planet.
Give them ten years and we’d still be here with the same crap and Shauna would be asking for eleven or twelve years.