Boundaries Commission continues to work

ZIZ News — Attorney General, the Hon. Jason Hamilton, has said the Boundaries Commission is still committed to the reform of constituency boundaries.

Speaking at the Conversation for Progress Meeting on Wednesday night, Hamilton cleared the air on statements being made on talk shows about the court’s decision and the behaviour of the Boundaries Commission.

He said, “So the court found some errors in the way that the consultation was done. But for the consultation, the Court had also found that the commission did everything that a proper commission ought to have done. So that’s something that takes away from the opposition saying that the commission tried to use the process as a means to gain a political advantage for the ruling government. The court was very clear on that, that there was no evidence that the commission acted in bad faith, that there was just an error on the commission’s part on how it went about its proceedings.”

He said even though the court voided the initial report, the commission itself is still active and continues to work.

“So although the court ruled that the report of the commission was of no effect, that does not mean it is the end of the life of the commission and of course the commission can continue to do its work.  How the commission does that work is a matter for the commission because the commission is an independent commission and is capable of making its own decisions and its own procedure and how it wants to go about that,” the Attorney General said.

Hamilton said the court also found that the Commission Chairman, Peter Jenkins was not biased, but was eminently qualified to act as chairman.

He also noted that the court ruled that there was no evidence that the government was trying to gerrymander, or move the boundaries in their favour, or that the census information used was invalid.