GOVERNMENT failed yesterday to secure support from the opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) for a change to the Constitution to correct “an oversight”.
The Freundel Stuart administration needed a two-thirds majority to bring into law the Constitution (Amendment) Bill to adjust the retirement age of the holders of the office of Auditor General and Director of Public Prosecutions from 62 to 67.
The failure of the bill was decided by a division, when individual votes are registered. Seventeen MPs, including the two independents Owen Arthur and Dr Maria Agard, voted “yes” with the Government, while the 11 Opposition members present abstained.
Stuart had minutes earlier said that he was consoled by the fact that “the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Auditor General and the persons in their respective offices . . . would have listened to this debate. . . (JS)
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