EDITORIAL - Follow France - give diaspora the vote

These days, when the 577 legislators of France's National Assembly gather in Paris, among them is Axelle Lemaire, a strikingly attractive mother of two.

Ms Lemaire, 37, was born in Quebec, Canada, to a French mother and a French-Canadian father. With dual nationality, she moved to France as a teenager, where she read for her first degree.

For the past decade, until France's National Assembly elections in June, which she contested and won on behalf of Francois Hollande's Socialist Party, Ms Lemaire has lived in London, completing a graduate degree in law and working in the Commons as a researcher for a British Labour Party MP.

As an MP herself, Ms Lemaire now presides over a most interesting constituency. It is more than four million square kilometres in size and has, perhaps, 500,000 residents. Its centre, undoubtedly, is London, the home of more than 300,000 French citizens, but it stretches across several countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia and Baltic states.

This is one of the 11 external constituencies, including one for North America, the French created this year to give the vote, and legislative representation, to their nationals abroad. Prior to this, French expatriates could vote only in presidential elections.

LESSONS FOR JAMAICA

There are lessons in the French experiment for Jamaica. It is an example of how we can more deeply embrace, and provide representation, to Jamaicans in the diaspora.

This is a significant issue that has received the intellectual rigour or creative attention that it deserves, except for the debate, and legal cases, over those MPs with dual, non-Commonwealth citizenship, who were unconstitutionally voted into Parliament in the 2007 general election.

There is, however, consensus on the importance of our diaspora. Jamaicans abroad remit more than US$2 billion a year, otherwise invest in the country and provide political support for Jamaica in their countries of residence. Many have skills and experience that can be of value to Jamaica.

While we have, over the past decade or so, established a framework for engagement of the diaspora, including successive governments making diaspora affairs part of the portfolio of the foreign ministry, these efforts do not go far enough. Most Jamaicans living abroad hanker for specific representation as a body, not merely as individuals registered in on-island constituencies, with the ability to vote if they are in Jamaica.

EXPAT REPRESENTATIVE

The French model, we believe, offers a partial solution. While it does not eliminate the bar on a Jamaican with dual nationality sitting in the legislature, or the practical issue of some overseas attending sessions of the House, it is conceivable that people abroad would vote for someone who meets the electoral criteria, but has shared their experiences.

Further, since sections 66 and 67 of the Constitution covering the establishment of constituencies are not - unlike those effecting membership of Parliament - deeply entrenched clauses, the Constitution could be relatively easily amended to provide for overseas ridings. It could happen in six months. The Representation of the People Act, too, can be easily amended to accommodate overseas voting.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller could use her visit to London this week to announce the planned UK/Europe constituency as part of Jamaica's undertaking in the 50th year of Independence.

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