Parliamentary Structures and Composition

• Author: Hamid A. Ghany
• Profession: Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine
• Pages: 64-88

4.

Parliamentary Structures and

Composition

Parliamentary Structures

There are eight bicameral parliaments in the Commonwealth Caribbean

and four unicameral ones. The first bicameral Parliament in the region in

the era of representative and responsible government was introduced into

Jamaica in 1944 by way of a new Constitution for the colony.1

According to Lloyd Barnett:

The Legislature was bi-cameral, consisting of a Legislative Council and a

House of Representatives. The former comprised three official members

and ten unofficial members nominated by the Governor and holding office

“during pleasure”. The House of Representatives consisted of thirty-two

members elected on the basis of single-member constituencies.2

In 1959, when reforms were being considered for this system, Barnett

indicates that there was some debate about retaining the bicameral

structure, however it was retained. There was some innovation in respect

of composition with a non-political element being brought into its

membership. According to Barnett:

When the self-governing Constitution of 1959 was being prepared doubts

were expressed as to the advisability of retaining a Second Chamber but it

was decided that such a body might serve some useful purpose if it were

so composed that it could operate on a somewhat different plane from

the House of Representatives and would not be capable of obstructing the

implementation of the decisions made by the elected Chamber. In an effort

to satisfy these two requirements the Governor was allowed to appoint a

small number of members representing non-political interests and the

leaders of the political Parties, the remaining members in proportion to

their strength in the House of Representatives.3

The actual provisions to which Barnett is referring here were spelt out in

the 1959 Jamaican Constitution as follows:

Parliamentary Structures and Composition 65

Eighteen Persons appointed by the Governor, in his discretion, after

consultation with such persons that he considers can speak for the differing

points of view groups represented in the House of Representatives.

Two or three persons, as the Governor acting on the advice of the Premier

shall decide, shall be appointed as members of the Legislative Council

acting as aforesaid.4

Barnett indicates that when the time came to draft a constitution for

Jamaica’s independence, a decision was taken to remove those two or

three senators appointed by the governor to represent ‘non-political

interests’. For the independence constitution, the decision of the framers

was to only allow the prime minister and the leader of the opposition to

recommend the appointment of senators.

Barnett states:

The arguments in favour of making appointments in a prescribed

manner which would ensure the representation of certain sections of the

community concerned with agriculture, industry, commerce, religion

and other important interests were rejected as being nationally divisive

and undemocratic in effect. It was thought that the leaders of the Parties

should be relied on to select suitable candidates who would be able to

speak with knowledge of, and sympathy for, all the important interests in

the community and at the same time “raise” the level of the deliberations in

the Chamber above that of party politics.5

The introduction of a category of senators who were ‘non-political’ in

the Jamaican Constitution in 1959 confirmed the existence of a trend

elsewhere in the British West Indies primarily because Trinidad and Tobago

embraced the idea as well for (i) the introduction of a Senate in 1961, and

(ii) the creation of a category of senators who came to be described as

‘independent senators’ owing to the fact that they were not in receipt of a

party whip for their participation and voting.

The fundamental difference between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago

emerged in 1962 when both countries attained their independence from

Great Britain. Jamaica removed the ‘non-political’ category of senators

and Trinidad and Tobago retained the ‘independent senators’.

In many respects, the model of having ‘non-political’ or ‘independent’

senators was copied by other Commonwealth Caribbean countries when

they attained their independence from Great Britain after 1962. However,

the evolution of this model of having the ‘non-political’ or ‘independent’

senators can be appreciated in the context of some British imperial history