New Senator And Minister To Be Appointed
Due to the removal of Rolfe Commissiong, a new Government Senator and Cabinet Minister will be appointed.
Technically speaking, Mr Commissiong “resigned” as a Minister, and Premier David Burt advised the Governor to revoke his appointment as a Senator.
The Premier said, “The appointment of the Government Leader in the Senate and of the Senator who must, under the Constitution, be a member of the Cabinet, will be made in due course.”
Mr Commissiong was initially appointed as a Senator, the Government Senate Leader and Minister of Community and Sports, so all those positions need to be filled – and the new Minister named must be a member of the Senate.
The four current Government Senators are Owen Darrell, Curtis Richardson, Arianna Hodgson and Lindsay Simmons, and of course there will be a new Senator named to replace Mr Commissiong.
The four Government Senators all ran in the recent General Election and the only other PLP candidates who ran in the election and did not win a seat are Davida Morris — who previously served as a Senator — and Dr Ernest Peets.
Looking at former PLP MPs, the only other MP who served before this election and did not run again is Michael Scott, who is an experienced politician who previously served as a Senator, MP and Cabinet Minister, and there are also other former PLP MPs and Senators who served in past years.
The previous Minister of Community Affairs and Sports was Lovitta Foggo, who won her seat with 84.14% of the vote in the recent election, however as the new Minister must also be a Senator, if Ms Foggo were to be re-appointed to the Ministry it would require removing another Minister and appointing a Senator to Cabinet.
However while candidates are often appointed to the Senate and former Ministers, Senators and MPs may be among the considerations, it is not mandatory, so the Premier could select any number of people to be the new Senator and Minister.
So the possible outcomes include one of the four current Government Senators being named as a Cabinet Minister and new person appointed to the Senate, a new Senator appointed and also named as a Cabinet Minister, and the Premier could also shuffle the Cabinet again while appointing a member of the Senate to Cabinet.
The timing of the announcement of the new appointments is not known, however speaking with Bernews this past weekend, the Premier said they will “look to handle that next week.”
This scenario is proving, yet again, that the talent just isn’t there when it comes to the PLP. The bench is not that deep after all. There are people in Ministerial roles who should not be there.
Why not use Mr. Weeks as Sports Minister, he was and is respected by the club’s, general public, has experience and is popular, a lot of great things in our sporting community could come about because of his leadership and knowledge.
I do agree
Mr weeks would probably be the best candidate for this post as he brings not only a wealth of knowledge with him but also a honest and positive approach
But in most cases these type of people are over looked because of their
( do right policy’s ) this government needs these type of minister’s in place if it intends to be the progressive party that its slogan states
I agree 100%
In the current cabinet formation, Mr. Weeks cannot be Sports Minister. There must be a minister from the Senate, and therefore no other elected member of the House of Assembly can serve as Minister. The Premier must appoint a 5th senator, and that new senator can be the new Minister, OR he can appoint one of the other senators as a Minister.