#Providenciales, November 5, 2018 – Turks and Caicos – Three years after a bi-partisan Constitutional Reform Committee presented its final report to the nation and to the government, updated constitutional changes have again gone to the United Kingdom in another formal document and this time it went unsupported by the now Opposition Progressive National Party.
Premier Sharlene Robinson explained, “The Official Opposition has declined to continue talks together with us before the UK. It is important to understand that we were a part of the PNP led government constitutional team and these are the works from that team that were submitted in 2015.” Premier Robinson continued with, “We were a part of the recommendations sent to the UK and the recommendations again before the UK are those presented in 2015 and they are based on consultations with the people of these islands.”
A meeting between the People’s Democratic Movement government and the Progressive National Party opposition in April 2018 resulted in some ‘updates’ to the original submissions; still the PNP opted out of a united presentation to the UK due to unfinished business when it comes to its party leadership.
“The government will however proceed on the expressed wishes of the people and on our party’s position to seek greater and urgent change to the 2012 constitution. As this process historically takes a long time we can ill afford to waste more time on this matter.”
During the media debrief last month, Premier Sharlene Robinson announced that on Monday October 22, 2018 her administration would send the suggested amendments to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; she called the proposed changes urgent and characterized the lack of bi-partisan support regrettable.
“The full proposal for changes to the constitution and the Crown Land Ordinance will be going forward to the UK on Monday morning and we have received correspondence from the UK Minister, Lord Ahmad in respect to the proposals to the Crown Land which I will share next week as to our final response.”
The first submission of constitutional changes by the Parliament of the Turks and Caicos Islands was wholly rejected by the United Kingdom in July 2015.
At that time, it was explained in correspondence from the FCO to then Speaker of the House, Robert Hall that: “One of the key lessons was the need to put in place a series of robust checks and balances, to ensure that TCI meets international recognized standards of good governance, the rule of law and sound financial management. The present constitution and later legislation have been and continued to be important legislations to deliver positive change in TCI. The turn-around in TCIs economy over recent years has been remarkable; of course it was driven in part by increase in tourist numbers but it is also as a result of the hard work that was done in TCI to reframe its constitution and to put in place the measures highlighted above,” the letter continued with, “It is against this background that I have accessed the Committee’s report and have concluded that to amend the constitution in ways proposed, would risk the hard won progress that was made, I do not believe this is a risk we can afford to take.”
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