Equality referendum won’t be held this year

As of Thursday, October 22, 2015

Sean McWeeney

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE long promised referendum on gender equality will not take place this year, Constitutional Commission Chairman Sean McWeeney acknowledged yesterday.

Mr McWeeney could not say when the vote will be held, although he expressed hope that the four related equality bills will be passed in Parliament this year.

He ruled out the possibility that the referendum could happen early next year, noting how close that would be to the Christmas season, or that it would happen around Easter, citing Lent.

“We need to allow for a campaign period of at least 21 days,” he said. “We need to allow the issue to be properly ventilated in advance of the actual referendum. But it’s safe to say now that at this particular point in time it’s unrealistic that you could have one. It’s legally possible, but I don’t think that would be happening.”

As for the Constitutional Referendum Bills, Mr McWeeney said the issues relating to them are “settled,” noting that when they are debated in Parliament he expects only a few parliamentarians to vote against them.

“It remains to be seen whether Parliament will find time to deal with those bills this year,” he said, adding that he is not sure where the matter ranks in the queue for the government.

The referendum has been delayed several times. It was first expected in June 2013, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of independence.

Subsequently the vote was pushed to November 2013 and then to June 2014.

The vote was later delayed to November 2014, and the relevant bills were tabled in the House of Assembly. After significant push back – even from some Progressive Liberal Party MPs – over the wording of some of the bills, the government again delayed the vote.

There was concern in some quarters that Bill four in particular, which seeks to end discrimination based on sex, could pave the way for gay marriage. The government has repeatedly said this concern is unwarranted.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Perry Christie said he hoped the referendum would take place in June of this year.

After that failed to happen, Mr McWeeney held out hope that the referendum would happen this fall.

National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage, who has responsibility for elections and referendums, has not give a new timeline for the vote.

TruePeople 8 years, 6 months ago

either give up on this vote, or just pass the legislation. retarded. and until now bahamians have said they want to remain inequal. retardeaded.

Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 6 months ago

The references below to Sean McWeeney and his brother Paul McWeeney are all we need to know about the McWeeney family. Articles published in The Punch in December 2013 informed the Bahamian public that Bank of The Bahamas (BOB) had made the following loans and advances connected to political friends and cronies of Perry Christie:

• $28 million to Leslie Miller and/or entities owned by him and/or members of his immediate family. • $3.5 million to Obie Wilchcombe & Pleasant Bridgewater re. Universal Distributors Bahamas Ltd., a company apparently now defunct for all intents and purposes. • $8 million to another senior PLP cabinet minister, rumoured to be pudgy with short stubby grubby dirty sticky fingers. • $6.3 million to PLP business woman Patricia Mortimer who purportedly is a best friend and business partner of Lady Poodling and the owner of several shops at Nassau International Airport. • $2.3 million re. GEMS Radio Station which at the time was owned by Debbie Bartlett and Cyprianna McWeeney, the latter being the wife of PLP lawyer Sean McWeeney who is the brother of Paul McWeeney. • $4.5 million to enterprises owned/controlled by Edward Penn. • $4.6 million to Phil Lightbourne re. Phil's Food Services (Phil Lightbourne was the front man and spokesman for Ben Frisch who owned Bahamas Food Services up until the PM allowed the Frisch Family to sell it to Sysco Foods (a large U.S. public company) in April 2013.

Keep in mind that BOB is majority owned and controlled by the Bahamas government; accordingly its overall affairs fall directly within the portfolio of Christie as both PM and Minister of Finance. Most, if not all, of the loans and advances mentioned above had to be fully provided for by BOB, and likely have since been either written off by BOB or transferred to Bahamas Resolve at great cost to hard working honest Bahamian taxpayers. Small wonder that, notwithstanding the mega millions in taxpayers’ funds required to bail out BOB, Perry Christie was only too quick to come to the defense of Paul McWeeney (brother of Sean McWeeney) for having so handsomely rewarded the PM's political friends and business cronies!

TruePeople 8 years, 6 months ago

well mudda sick jhed

TalRussell 8 years, 6 months ago

Comrades any of the politically connected from both sides House isles who have NOT repaid or repaying their Bank of Bahamaland loans "as contractually agreed to" - should have their bank records forensically examined for any tell-tell signs, where and to whom the millions of taxpayers loans monies were disbursed to and for what reasons.
Amazing what it is possible to reveal once you trace the monies.
The same should be done for the bank records of the alleged criminally charged BEC $600,000 bribe receiver.

ThisIsOurs 8 years, 6 months ago

I completely agree! I think the perfect time would be after the Bahamar opening, sometime between the PLP convention and carnival. Couldn't ask for better timing, people still drunk.

realfreethinker 8 years, 6 months ago

Thisisours you are still holding out hope that Bahamar is going to be opened?

ThisIsOurs 8 years, 6 months ago

I guess I have a Pollyanna complex, I thought carnival would make money too...sigh...(I'm disabused of the second notion...not gonna happen for YEARS "at best", and that's IF they get it right)

DillyTree 8 years, 6 months ago

Great, so we continue to live in a backward nation that does not value equality for all. I sure would hate to be the wives, mothers and daughters of all those men in charge of getting this referendum presented. Where are the voices of outrage? Where are the women of the Bahamas? And all the nonsense about using the referendum to usher in a new age of gay rights is just that -- complete and utter nonsense. Don't hide behind the issues!

TruePeople 8 years, 6 months ago

bey they out there voting no jhed. The funny thing is they decriminalized gayness in 1992 and i think alot of people ein even kno that yet. They kno they couldn't vote on that, so they just do it. But womans rights? ya bey lets just throw it around when we want attention but keep dem as second class citizen

asiseeit 8 years, 6 months ago

This criminal government could change the laws tomorrow if they had the balls but we all know they are about votes, power, and money before anything close to good governance. They proved this with the numbers racket, they can change the law if they want, but PGC ain't getting paid for this so he won't touch it.

MajorTom 8 years, 6 months ago

January is the Christmas season. February has Lent. March has Easter. April has Palm Sunday and Passover. May has Pacha and Pentecost. June has Ramadan, another Pentecost, and All Saints. July has St. Benedict’s Day and the birthday of Emperor Haile Selassi. August 15 is the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary. September 8 is the Nativity of Virgin Mary and has an equinox. October has St Francis Day, The Blessing of the Animals, Yom Kippur, and Diwali. November begins with All Saints Day, and on the 27‘th, Advent begins. December has Christmas. 2017 anyone?

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