President of the Senate, Reginald Farley, has determined that Senator Lucille Moe did not infringe any laws in her prolonged absence from the Senate.
In a statement read at today’s brief sitting, Farley responded to Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn’s call for Moe’s seat to be declared vacant according to a section of the Constitution which stated “that the seat of a Senator should become vacant if he is absent from Barbados for a period exceeding 40 days at any time when the Senate is sitting, without the leave of the President, given in accordance with the provisions of Sub-section 2”.
However Farley pointed out Moe had acted within the provisions of the law, had not exceeded the 40 days’ leave as set out in the Constitution and had applied for leave as advised by the Clerk of the Senate.
The full statement follows:
At the sitting 18th August 2021 Senator Franklyn drew attention of the President that Senator Lucille Moe had not been seen since December in the Senate and thus in his opinion in accordance with Section 39-1 of the Constitution her seat should be declared vacant
Just to remind Senators that Section 39-1 of the Constituion provides as follows “that the seat of a Senator should become vacant Section A Section B, C being the operative one, if he is absent from Barbados for a period exceeding 40 days at any time when the Senate is sitting, without the leave of the President given in accordance with the provisions of sub-section 2.
Section 39-2 reads as follows: The President of the Senate may grant leave to any senator to be absent from Barbados for any period not exceeding six months at any one time.
The records indicate that Senator Lucille Moe attended the sitting of the Senate on 18th December 2020. The House of Assembly had earlier sat on the 15th of December 2020 and thereafter went on annual recess, returning on 12th of January 2021.
So when the Senate met on December 18 2021, it thereafter followed and went on recess until that 12th of December 2021. This fact is important as in the calculation of time towards the 40 days mentioned in the Constitution, days when the Senate is in recess are not to be taken into account in that calculation.
Our information is that Senator Lucille Moe was in Barbados on the following days – January 5th, February 20th to 21st and May 16th to 20th, 2021. These days are also important as the Constitution references absence from Barbados. When the periods are taken together, that is, when the Senate was on recess and when Senator Moe was in Barbados during the periods that the Senate was sitting the limit of 40 days was not breached.
Further, the House of Assembly went on the usual break after the Estimates and returned on April 23rd, 2021, so when the Senate met for estimates on March 24th, it thereafter had gone into recess as well, the recess ending on the 23rd of April 2021.
Senator Moe applied for leave on the 19th of May 2021 and leave was granted for three months expiring on the 18th of August 2021. It should be noted that on every occasion when Senator Moe was not able to attend the Senate her absence was communicated to the Clerk and the President. However the Clerk had informed Senator Moe that while she acted in accordance with the Standing orders of the Senate and notified both the clerk and President of her inability to attend Senate, she was made aware that such correspondence did not escape the operation of Section 39-1 of the Constitution and she was reminded to follow the prescription of Section 39-2.
As indicated earlier, Senator Moe did follow this advice in May and sought leave from the President, which was granted for three months expiring on 18thof August 2021.
It should be pointed out that Senator Moe attended Senate on the 8th of September 2021.
I thank Senator Franklyn for raising this matter for the attention of the Senate and want to assure him that the Clerk and myself were meticulous to ensure that the laws which govern the honour of the Senate are indeed followed. (GC)
