New Government Senator To Be Appointed
A new Government Senator will be appointed in the coming days/weeks, with Curtis Richardson’s resignation taking effect today [Jan 31].
Mr Richardson, who resigned after widespread criticism over aspects of his handling of his $19,000 debt to an elderly landlord, also served as the Junior Minister for Transportation and National Security.
When exactly the new Senator will be appointed is not clear, in the announcement of Mr Richardson’s resignation, the Government said an “appointment to the vacant seat will be made in the coming weeks.”
This will mark the second new Government Senator appointed within the last 18 months due to a resignation, and to give a comparison of the time between that resignation and the new appointment, it was announced on October 10, 2020 that Rolfe Commissiong would no longer serve in the Senate, and his replacement, Dr Ernest Peets, was announced on November 5, 2020.
The Senate consists of 11 members, five selected by the Governing party, three by the official Opposition, and three Independents appointed by the Governor.
The OBA/Opposition Senators are Ben Smith, Robin Tucker and Marcus Jones, the Independent Senators are Joan Dillas-Wright, Michelle Simmons and John Wight, and the remaining four PLP/Government Senators are Owen Darrell, Arianna Hodgson, Lindsay Simmons and Dr Ernest Peets.
Screenshot from the Parliament site showing the current Senators
The Premier and Opposition Leader can appoint whoever they select to the Senate, however in recent years, those appointed Senators tend to have been candidates in past elections.
The current OBA candidates all ran in the 2020 General Election, as did the current four PLP Senators and Mr Richardson. The PLP won that election by a 30-6 margin, and so there is only one person remaining who ran as a candidate in the last election who did not win a seat or was appointed to the Senate.
However while Senators are often past candidates, the Premier can, as stated above, appoint who he chooses, so he would have a wide array of people to select from, and the new appointment is expected to be announced in the coming days/weeks.
“Mr Richardson, who resigned after widespread criticism over aspects of his handling of his $19,000 debt to an elderly landlord …”
For my part, the criticism was aimed at his refusal to pay the judgment debt, even by instalments, and his implying that because he is a member of the Senate he is above the law.
I do not fault the man for falling into debt, I fault him for the way he behaved in relation to his landlord. One can only imagine the contempt he would have held voters in had he been elected!
Quite agree with you on this.
A lot of people still seem to be confusing ‘having debt’ with the way he actually handled this (continuing to live in the unit without paying was only the beginning) .
I strongly doubt that Mrs Harvey will recoup anything as I’ve seen people like him over the years ignore court orders and wash their hands clean of everything.
‘That’s all history now’ is their refrain .
I think we all agree that the funds should be paid as soon as possible to Ms. Harvey but the repeated comments that he intimated or asserted that he is above the law ‘based on his affiliation’ remains as an allegation only.
As far as I am aware (and I stand to be corrected), Senator Richardson has denied that he made such an assertion.