ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC) — The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Wednesday accused the ruling New National Party (NNP) of hijacking the Constitution Reform Advisory Committee (CRAC) as it seeks to implement its own “politically motivated reform agenda” in Grenada.

Grenadians will vote in a national referendum on October 27 and the NDC said that while the NNP has repeatedly said that it supports “meaningful constitutional reform”, it has “done everything reasonably possible to arrive at a package of reform of the constitution on the basis of national consensus and bipartisan co-operation”.

According to the opposition party, the Keith Mitchell-led NNP has “effectively hijacked the Constitution Reform Advisory Committee (CRAC) and is using a carefully selected few members of the committee to implement its own politically motivated reform agenda”.

“The NNP reform agenda is driven mainly by a deep desire by the prime minister to salvage his legacy. They selected a small team of supporters of constitutional reform who, perhaps in a genuine desire to bring about constitutional change, adopted practices and procedures that were wholly inconsistent with established norms and international standards,” the NDC said.

“As a result, the approach taken to the constitution reform process has been marred by underhand dealings, short cuts, political shenanigans, and smoke and mirrors,” the NDC added.

The opposition party, which failed to gain a single seat in the last general election, said that the Cabinet had “arrogantly rejected” proposals aimed at a “genuine” reform of the constitution, and “for these reasons, we took the position that we could not support the constitution reform process in the manner in which it was being conducted”.

It said there were numerous problems associated with the approach taken to reform the constitution, including the procedure followed for choosing the items included on the referendum ballot was seriously flawed, and that recommendations that were made by the current committee to the Cabinet after consultations with the people “were rejected by the Cabinet without any good reason for doing so”.

The NDC said that the date of the referendum continues to be of concern to the party, and that CARC chairman Dr Francis Alexis had no lawful authority to announce the date.

“The announcement of referendum is not a part of his remit. He heads a committee which is merely an advisory one and has no legal status to announce a date for referendum,” the NDC said.

“Under our laws, only the governor general can cause a referendum on the constitution to be held. This she does by issuing a referendum Writ under the seal of the State, saying that a Referendum shall be held. It is now almost seven weeks since Dr Alexis, in his exuberance, usurped the constituted role of the governor general,” the party said.

The NDP said that the country is still awaiting the issuance of the writ for holding the referendum, adding “furthermore, in all commonwealth countries, such an announcement is made by the prime minster of the country after consultations with the governor general”.

“In this case, not even a member of the Cabinet of Ministers was in attendance when the announcement was made,” the NDC added.

Among the bills to be voted on is one calling for the island to replace the London-based Privy Council with the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice as the island’s final court.

Grenadians are also being asked to vote on legislation for a specific date for general elections.