Analysts: Change rules for Head of State

The formula for choosing the President should be changed if the country wants someone truly independent, says political analyst Dr Indira Rampersad.

She was responding to a call by chairman of the Dr Eric Williams Memorial Committee Reginald Vidale, in an i95.5 FM interview yesterday, that every citizen should vote for the President and called for the necessary constitutional changes to be implemented.

Rampersad told Newsday yesterday there has hardly been any move in a long time to change anything in the Constitution noting that type of process was done for an executive president which the country does not have.

She said while appointments are supposed to be independent and independent people chosen, the appointment itself is not independent and it is usually the electoral college and the ruling party that gets its way. She said this is also true for the selection of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“Usually whoever nominees is that of the ruling party is elected. There is no rocket science.”

Rampersad said, however, that if the country wants someone who can be truly independent, the formula needs to change.

“We have to come up with different way to do this.”

Political analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath told Newsday the idea of a different way of electing a President is something that is of interest to most of the population but he believes calls for the President to be elected by voting cannot go anywhere and will not.

“Not until we have constitutional reform and based on the present structure of Parliament and the capacity of Parliament to make decisions regarding constitutional reform that will not go anywhere. It is a moot point.”

On who he would like to see as the next President, Ragoonath said it clearly has to be somebody well regarded and respected in society and there are still a few of people of this calibre around. He said the question was whether or not political parties find favour with those people, and in particular the ruling party which has the deciding vote.

He also said the President does not have to be lawyer, noting former president and former UWI principal George Maxwell Richards was not and he served this country well. He added the President would have a court of legal minds and luminaries and there is therefore no need for any specific field of discipline. The Electoral College will elect the sixth President on January 19, 2018.

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