PM says no immediate plans to amend constitution

ST GEORGE’S (CMC):

Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell says his administration has no plans to introduce constitutional changes that will result in term limits for the head of state as well as that of the government.

“At this stage there are no plans to change the constitution to introduce that,” he said while responding to a question during the weekly ‘DM with the PM’ – a social media interactive programme with followers on his social media page.

The format of the programme requires the audience to submit questions in advance or live and he will provide answers to concerns and inquiries.

Though admitting that he would like to see term limits for the prime minister and the governor general, Prime Minister Mitchell said that such changes were rejected by the Grenadian population during the 2016 referendum when Grenadians voted on seven bills seeking to amend several sections of the Constitution.

A second referendum was held in 2017 to make the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice diGrenada’s final appellate court also failed.

“Currently no, Grenada had two referenda on those issues, the population voted no when the matter was brought up, so at this stage our administration does not plan to introduce term limits,” Mitchell told the programme.

“Personally, I am in favour of term limits, personally I think it’s healthy to have change at the top of the leadership that is time bound and predictable, that allows other persons to have the ambition to also want to get to that position as well. Each generation, I think deserves leadership that is reflective of that generation,” he added.

Grenada gained its political independence from Britain on February 7, 1974, marking the end of the country’s status as an associated state within the British Commonwealth. Grenada was the first of the six West Indies Associated States to achieve independence.