McLean withdraws OMOV motion

(CNS): Despite concerns that the government motion committing the PPM administration to establish an electoral boundary commission in order to implement introduce one man, one vote in single member constituencies before the next election does not go far enough, Arden McLean withdrew his own private member's motion on the issue Friday. In a day dealing with a laundry list of private member's motions covering a catalogue of issues, from inequity in the immigration law to home invasions, the member for East End pulled his motion, which had been filed several months earlier, saying that he would, despite his mistrust, wait and see what government did.

McLean had stated in the debate last week on the government motion, which passed through the Legislative Assembly without his support, that he had genuine concerns that the government had a hidden agenda. He pointed to a failure to introduce a specific time line, the fact that it was waiting on the boundary commission before amending the actual law, and above all, that the government would not solidify the number of seats, leaving it open to increase the numbers to nineteen via the back door of the commission.

Nevertheless, despite his publicly declared mistrust of his former party colleague, Premier Alden McLaughlin, when it comes to his political position on issues, McLean said that he was willing to wait and hoped he would “be pleasantly surprised". He added that he would hold off to see if government would do what it had promised and introduce OMOV in 18 SMCs long before the country goes to the polls in 2017. However, the independent member warned government that withdrawing the motion did not mean it could not come back again.