In today's state of the nation address, the Prime Minister also floated the idea of an elected Senate. In fact, he did less than float it; he mentioned it, glancingly, in passing. And yes, like everything else in the speech, it was short on details but after, the Prime Minister elaborated.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"We intend to take a bill to the parliament to propose an elected senate. We believe the Senate should be elected by the people as opposed to by interest groups or selected by interest groups and we feel that's an advance over what we have at this time. As to when it will kick in, that's a matter yet for discussion and debate by the Cabinet as well as by, we need to discuss it with the Leader of the Opposition as well. We are hoping to get some consensus on this but if not, we do intend to propose an elected senate, possibly say to take effect by 2010 or something like this."
Jules Vasquez,
Sir while speaking about the elected Senate, one of your Senators resigned last week because of the Electricity Amendment Bill and what he felt were the odious terms of that overtaking the PUC. Is that an indictment of this Electricity Amendment Bill?
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"Not at all. I believe Senator Chanona was unduly concerned about the effect of what the bill was doing. In fact all the Bill is doing is asserting the right of Parliament to pass laws and sometimes it is done through Ministers by statutory instruments and sometimes through the National Assembly."
