Question of the Day: Should Senators in the Upper House of Parliament be elected by the people rather than appointed?

Says the person who’s appointed by an overseas monarch 👑 on the recommendation of the UK’S Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

I’d rather have ANTIGUANS acknowledging ANTIGUANS.

The colonial brainwashed “Sir” Clare Roberts is rather evident in this matter. So sad really, but not surprising that he deems this an issue …

Why the question now? Because it is a lady just appointed or? lol 😳👁️👁️👀

No! We already have elected MP’s.

The Senate has failed to fulfill its intended purpose. It has devolved into a place where seats are given out as political favors and to secure pensions. We need to move to a unicameral house for real representation and accountability.

This issue must be addressed in a wholistic manner. It may even extend to our country becoming a republic. Our country is part of the Commonwealth and the King is Charge represented by the Governor General.

Your king Sharon … your king 👑

Bwoi, the Most Honourable Prime Minister Mia Mottley from Barbados 🇧🇧 got it perfectly correct by turning her country into a Republic. Bravo to her great leadership 👏🏾

I’m so envious of their stance with the UK’S monarchy. Again, an outstanding country that knows about their cruel and enslaved past ✊🏾

LONG BUT WORTH THE READ: Our current system of government allows for the Senators to be selected by the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Governor General. Our political system utilizes a bicameral legislature. This means that it consists of two houses – the House of Representative & the Senate. The two bodies work together to enact laws and oversee the government. The House of Representative is the lower house and is the more powerful of the two chambers because it’s members are directly elected by the people. The Senate is the Upper House.
The Senate should act as a check on the house, providing a forum for good debate and review of legislation. It can amend or reject bills passed by the lower house. Senators often bring a high level of expertise in specific fields such as law, business or education, enriching the legislative process though we have seen very little of this in our neck of the woods. Here, ones only qualification for being a Senator is being a party hack and they always tow the party line.
I have long advocated that we should amend our constitution such that we can have greater and more meaningful participation in government, inclusive of elected Senators and an elected Municipal Corporation or Parish Councils responsible for the day to day operation of each parish. Each parish would be headed by a Mayor. The Parish Councils would be empowered to make by laws and rule for the good governance of the parishes they have jurisdiction over. They would be directly responsible for the infrastructure needs – roads, bridges, drains, sidewalks, garbage collection, water and electricity, disaster management, civic events, regulation and other local services.
Our current system of government has not worked well over the years and places a lot of stress and burden on the elected Member of Parliament who must be everything to everyone in his constituency. While some might love it this way, it is a far less efficient way of running and managing government.

This issue has yo be addressed in a wholistic manner. It may be that our country has to become a republic where the King has no jurisdiction over us. As it stands now we are part of the Commonwealth and changes to our system may have to be approved by the King or his representative the Governor General. It is worth our consideration though.