KINGSTON, Jamaica — Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte says that extensions of the states of emergency (SOE) voted by Parliament, have to be owned by both sides of Gordon House.

The attorney general was speaking at yesterday’s National Crime and Violence Prevention Summit hosted by the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston.

She said that she had taken note of the decision by the Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Senator Donna Scott Mottley, to challenge the constitutionality of the extensions of the SOEs, following the initial 14-day proclamation by the governor general.

Senator Malahoo Forte, who was speaking at the opening session of the crime and violence summit, pointed out that prior to the introduction of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 2011, the Government could, with a simple majority in Parliament, extend the life of the proclamation. However, since 2011 when the charter became law, a two-thirds majority was required for an extension.

She noted that the Government does not have a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives. But, even if it did, the extension would have to be passed in the Senate, where it cannot have a two-thirds majority and, therefore, would have to depend on at least one Opposition vote to approve an extension.

She said that it must be understood that regardless of the criticisms being leveled, each extension has to be owned by both sides of the parliamentary aisles.

“I say no more,” the attorney general concluded.

Balford Henry