fp Turks and Caicos

Seven people to discuss proposed changes to the Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution with U.K. officials began meetings June 15 and were expected to conclude on June 16.

Six of the seven team members had met June 8 to discuss positions they would present in London, and Progressive National Party Leader Clayton Greene said at a press conference June 9 that “on the vast majority of issues, we were able to find common ground.”

“I am satisfied that when we get to England, there will be a unified voice on all the issues that are fundamental,” he said.

However, Consultative Forum Chairwoman Lillian Misick did not meet with the rest of the team, whose makeup Greene continued to criticize.

The PNP said the administration has tried to create dissension and dilute political party strength in the negotiations with its choices to go to London. He objected to members of the forum and council being on the team because he says those bodies were appointed, not elected.

“The administration in its attempt to dilute the legitimate influence of political parties in this country have sought to invite other persons to this meeting who political parties may have no influence over, and people who — with the greatest respect — have little or no constituencies,” Greene said.

In her opening statement during the June 15 meeting, Misick criticized both party leaders for not respecting the process. “Instead they have propagated the plainly self-interested notion that there was nothing wrong with the TCI that immediate elections could not remedy.”

“But I urge the whole U.K. government to beware that these party leaders do not have any greater mandate to speak for the people of the TCI than any other member of this delegation. Nothing has demonstrated this fact quite like these party leaders calling on all citizens to join them in unity marches to protest — what they decried as your neo-colonial takeover of our country — only to have a mere handful of people show up to follow them.”

In addition to inviting Greene, People’s Democratic Movement Leader Doug Parnell and Misick, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the governor invited four others: Advisory Council Member Doreen Quelch-Missick; Wendal Swann, former chairman of the All-Party Commission on the Constitution and Electoral Reform; Pastor Bradley Handfield; and Youth Ambassador Trevon Farrington.

In London with Greene are party members Royal Robinson, a former Minister, and E. Jay Saunders, who was a candidate for leadership of the party last year.

Some members of the PDM are also with Parnell in London, including previous leader Floyd Seymour and Beryn Duncanson. Not only is he meeting with Foreign Minister Henry Bellingham about the Constitution, Parnell and his group also had meetings planned with the TCI All Party Parliamentary Group of the House of Commons, the Department for International Development, and members of the Conservative and Labour parties.

After a Commission of Inquiry in 2009 alleged government corruption, the 2006 Constitution was suspended, and the FCO called for changes to that document as one of a number of milestones required before the country would be returned to control by elected government.

Both the PDM and PNP refused to take part in consultations with Constitution advisor Kate Sullivan and have repeatedly called for direct negotiation with the U.K. After a FCO team held a series of public consultations in May, the team invited the group to London to meet with Bellingham.

Among most objectionable proposed changes to the Constitution are increasing the power of the governor over elected officials, allowing a non-Belonger to be deputy governor, changing the way to obtain Belongership, and altering the method of electing members to the House of Assembly.

Issues addressed by the PNP

• Objections to proposed voting system
• Deputy Governor being a Belonger without provisos
• Increasing the powers of the governor
• Reference to Belongership in the Constitution

Issues addressed by PDM

• Belongership
• House of Assembly including its size (including committees), its functions and limitations and its makeup (voting system)
• Powers of the governor vs. 2006 Constitution
• Public finance and the watchdog institutions
• Proposed constitutional silence on right to trial by jury
• Constitutional amendments that would give greater authority and responsibility to the electorate, the legislature and the executive including referendum provisions and delegation of certain reserve powers

Click here to read Lillian Misick's opening statement

Click here to read Clayton Greene's opening statement