The Tribune

THE Constitutional Commission held the first in a number of town meetings slated for New Providence at the Diplomat Centre, Bahamas Faith Ministries on Monday.

The Town meeting afforded members of the public the opportunity to make comments, give suggestions and ask questions on personal or public issues.

Many questions concerned retention and enforcement of capital punishment, the adoption of a fixed election date, the setting of term limits for Prime Ministers, and the evolution of the Senate into an elected body.

The Constitutional Commission has been given a broad mandate and will pay particular attention to the need to strengthen the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, including the need to end gender-bias discrimination against women consistent with United Nations Conventions, and more enlightened views that have developed globally since the attainment of Independence.

The Commission’s inquiry into this particular matter will necessarily entail close examination of not only the anti-discrimination and fundamental rights provisions, but of the citizenship provisions of the constitution.

Similarly, the Commission will bring under renewed scrutiny, the provisions of the constitution that regulate the relationship between centres of state, power and the individual.

This will be done to afford individuals greater protection against abuses of power while at the same time assuring that the collective security needs of the citizenry as a whole are not unduly compromised by the pursuit of individual liberty in a democratic society.

Chairman of the Commission Sean McWeeny said the commission is not a” PLP thing, not a DNA thing and not a FNM thing”.

He said: “Members of the commission are motivated by love for country and are unpaid.”

The commission is expected to report its recommendations to the government on or before June 30, 2013.