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Also, there are few key points, which you may have missed in the Prime Minister’s press conference on two of the good governance demands that the BNTU has called for.  Our clip form the press conference last night was 12 minutes long, and due to the information overload, you may have missed the Prime Minister’s commitment to finally allow the appointment of the 13 Senator. As you will remember, very early into the UDP’s first term after 2008, the Barrow Government passed the legislation to appoint a 13 Senator, which was to come from the NGO community. That legislation has been waiting for a commencement order for at least 7 years now because the Prime Minister refused to sign it.  He famously quipped, quote, “It ain’t gonna happen.â€￾ Well, under the pressure from the teachers, it will now; the Prime Minister has decided that he will sign the order for that legislation next week Thursday.

Thereafter, it will take 3 months for the order to take effect, and in that time, the Prime Minister intends to try to convince the NGO community to appoint someone who will be impartial on all legislation that the Government will seek to pass in the parliament. Here’s his first sales pitch to the person who will take up that pivotal office:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"In the period that will elapse before the 13th senator is named, government will make an effort to say to all the social partner senators we were the ones that put this in our manifesto. We were the ones that changed the constitution so that this could happen. We delayed because of this legitimate fear that I have expressed given that it appeared that social partners were lining up politically. We hope that after all that has transpired we will be able to rely on the social partners to treat with government legislation and motions coming to the senate in a manner that is impartial and devoid of any kind of political agenda. If we can get that then the 13th senator will prove to be a wonderful thing for our democracy as we always knew it could be hence the reason for our coming up with it. If we don't get that then I fear the paralysis that I worry about would materialise; let me just tell you that it will mean in principle that the senate would be able to delay any government legislation or motion for upwards of 6 months."