SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — President of the People’s National Party (PNP) Mark Golding has indicated that his political party is not letting go of a failed attempt to introduce a modified private members’ Bill to facilitate the impeachment of Members of Parliament for certain offences.

In fact, Golding, who introduced the Bill entitled “The Constitution (Amendment) (Impeachment) Act, 2021”, has said that if the PNP is given the chance to form the next Government, “we’re going to come with impeachment”.

“I brought the impeachment Bill back to Parliament with some modifications three years ago, and the Government has done nothing with it, and we can’t pass it because we are in the minority in the Parliament. They have done nothing about it even though it was a manifesto promise from 2016 of Andrew Holness,” argued Golding, who was addressing a PNP Westmoreland parish meeting in Independence Park in Savanna-la-Mar on Saturday.

“I dusted it off and set it up a little differently, friendly, so it would cover a wider range of terrible acts,” he added.

Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte, in her contribution to the Sectoral Debate in 2021, argued that, after lengthy deliberations, the committee reviewing Jamaica’s Constitution proposed that there should be no inclusion of an impeachment process in the new-look constitution.

Golding on Saturday pointed to an incident four years ago in which a man was seen in a video that went viral hitting a woman with a stool, as his motivation for putting forward the Bill. Sitting Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Central George Wright became embroiled in that controversy.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes that a Member of Parliament would behave like that, and they [the Jamaica Labour Party] did nothing about it. The man sat in Parliament; he received no sanction from Parliament, and now they are going to run him as a candidate in this constituency. Big disrespect to the women of Central Westmoreland! Big disrespect to the women of Jamaica,” stated Golding.

“That is why we must have an impeachment procedure so that we can address those types of issues, where the parliamentarians and public officials behave in a way that brings their office into disrepute; there must be something that can be done to sanction them,” added the PNP leader.

On the other hand, Wright, who is said to be well-loved in the constituency, has neither confirmed nor denied allegations that suggested he was the perpetrator in the video.

Wright has since married the woman who was also alleged to be in the viral video.

Days after the video started circulating on social media the police closed their probe into the matter as a result of the unwillingness of the parties involved, and potential witnesses, to participate in the investigation, as well as the poor quality of the video alleged to have captured the incident.

A similar recommendation was first made by the Stone Committee, which was chaired by the late sociologist Professor Carl Stone in 1992.

Then, in 2011, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck introduced a Bill in Parliament for the impeachment of public officials who misuse their office. However, a change in Administration followed and the Bill fell off the agenda.