To recall or not to recall…political will to determine a stay in office

Dickie Bradley

To recall or not to recall…that is the question. Or at least it’s the political issue. That option remains open to the Opposition which hasn’t said much at all on the matter. In general elections 2012, the U.D.P. won by a narrow margin of seventeen to fourteen seats, which means that if two U.D.P. representatives are removed as members of parliament, the other side could, theoretically, wrest control of the House of Representatives. So, with that said, the reality has to be this – while it would take political will to come down hard on Penner, how will that fare off against the political will to stay in office?

Dickie Bradley, Attorney

“There is a political angle to this question and we need to be fair to the Prime Minister to say that he is sitting on a government that has a razor edge majority of only two seats. And what has happened with Mr. Penner – the Opposition can in fact get him removed from his seat. He won by seventeen votes. A recall under the recent amendment to the Constitution can definitely see him in serious trouble. You’re talking about, if that is pursued by the Opposition and they are strangely silent over these matters, but if that is pursued, you will see a government with one seat. And then now you have another deputy minister alleged to have committed some recent wrongdoing, and a previous one who was fighting and giving trouble in Corozal. They have breached the Code of Conduct in the Constitution and the Opposition needs to see how they will go…whether they will go to the court and ask for a declaration that the kind of behavior…whether the police officer in Corozal failed in his duty to go to court…that is not the issue right now, that is for a criminal charge. The issue is to list out how you are to behave when you hold public office and once you breach that clearly you cannot remain in office so they open themselves to be recalled. So it is not so much whether there is a will. There is a lot of things tied up in that question. There is a political will to preserve the government so that it does not fall.”

Today, releases were issued by the P.U.P. Western Caucus, the Vision Inspired by the People and COLA calling for the matter to be investigated thoroughly and for those responsible to be dealt justice. In related news, COLA states that it will be demonstrating in front of the House on Friday. The release says, “government’s bill has come due. It is now time for them to take charge and end the parade of scandal.”