Article 47 of our Constitution states; "The Parliament will examine the credentials of the newly appointed members and, with due observance of rules to be laid down by national ordinance, decide the disputes that arise with regard to the credentials or the election itself". Parliament installs a committee to check credentials. Nowhere is it stated that Parliament must vote on credentials.

Article 47 of the Explanatory Memorandum

Article 47 of the Explanatory Memorandum states, quote; "This article requires parliament to examine the credentials of their newly appointed members," Unquote. If the Constitution states that Parliament is obliged to verify the credentials, why has this not yet been done?

The solution

The problem lies in the fact that the committee responsible for verifying credentials is installed in a meeting of Parliament. If there is no quorum for the meeting, the committee cannot be installed. My proposal is to separate the verification of credentials from a meeting of Parliament.

The committee is then installed at the beginning of the parliamentary term for a period of two or four years. The problem as described above will then no longer be discussed.

"Problem is resolved".

Comment

Article 47 speaks of "newly appointed members". The question is, how can one speak of "newly appointed members" when credentials have not even been verified? Only then when the elected person takes his / her oath before the governor can there be an appointment. In the Election Regulations it refers to "the elected person" as long as the credentials have not been verified and the oath has been taken before the governor. This is again one of the ambiguities and errors in the Constitution, to which I have referred for years. Everyone hibernates.

In my next communiqués I will (again) address each of these errors and ambiguities. The fact is that the members of parliament and ministers have not kept their oath before the governor as laid down in article 49 of the Constitution, that they will help to maintain the Constitution. For many years I have been analyzing various incidents that have occurred in this community and have been posting my comments through the news media. If you wish, I will continue my work in parliament.