The referendum on numbers and/or lottery seems being approached totally backwards and will not be in compliance with The Constitution.
Refer to Article: 54, in particular section (3), which covers and is particularly concerned with any Amendment to the substantive Article: 26 (4) (e) which is the point of issue which allows for “discrimination” disallowing Bahamians and residents to play lotteries, gaming, own gaming houses gamble in any form.
No one seems to have referred to The Constitution before making so many utterances on this issue but for those who don’t know… to amend ArticIe 26 (e) Parliament needs to pass the legislation with a three-quarters vote in The House of Assembly not a 2/3rd majority vote – a whopping difference – changing the odds for the issue to get a majority vote.
I suggest government is also backwards in that they are required to put the approved legislation once it has obtained the 3/4 vote of the House of Assembly, not We the People vote, on referendum headers-questions and if approved then government can amend. As I read The Constitution it is 100 per cent around the other way.
W Thompson
Nassau, The Bahamas
August, 2012
