The proposed changes to the Constitution and the election law will not be debated at today’s (Tuesday) meeting of the House of Assembly, Prime Minister Godwin Friday says.
He told the state-owned Agency for Public Information that while all the bills on the order paper are important, not all of them are urgent.
Friday, who is also minister of legal affairs, said that today’s sitting of the national assembly, which is underway, will focus on the bills that affect “ordinary people”.
It was the prime minister’s first comments on the controversial draft amendments since Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves raised public alarm about them when they appeared on the Order Paper one week earlier, as the rules dictate.
Gonsalves claimed the government would push the bill through all three readings during today’s meeting.
However, Friday, who was overseas, remained quiet on his government’s plans even amidst opposition claims that the government was attempting to change the law as an insurance policy in the face of two election petitions to be tried in the High Court in July.
Carlos Williams and Luke Browne, of Gonsalves’ Unity Leader Party, have filed election petitions challenging the qualification of Friday and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dwight Fitxgerald Bramble, to contest the Nov. 27, 2025, general election, because they acquired Canadian citizenship through their own deliberate acts.
Friday has been representing the Northern Grenadines since 2001, and Bramble has been MP for East Kingstown since 2020. They both had Canadian citizenship before they were first elected. Friday has defeated Williams twice, and Browne has lost four times in East Kingstown, including twice to Bramble.
The prime minister acknowledged the public interest in the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2026 and the Constitution of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
“These are the ones that you’ve heard comments about in the public media and so forth — the Constitutional Amendment and the amendment to the RPA — to clarify what is a foreign power or state,” said Friday, who is slated to table the bills later in Tuesday’s sitting.
“This is something that is of great public interest. We put it on the Order Paper here today, again, because it’s a great public interest matter. This is a … constitutional matter. It’s not going to be dealt with today. That is a matter we’ll have broad public involvement in so that we can make a decision at the appropriate time,” the prime minister said.
“What I’m really pleased about, though, is that there’s been quite a lot of interest that has been given to this matter. And, hopefully, we have a fruitful discussion, and then when we make the final decisions as to what the amendments would be, how we proceed and so forth, that will have broad public appeal.”
iWitness News was reliably informed that the government will not attempt to pass the law until the election petitions are disposed of.
Meanwhile, Friday told API, “… all the bills that are on the Order Paper are important, not all of them are urgent.
“I always say to people that not because something is important it is urgent,” he said, adding that the government will pass the two pieces of legislation dealing with pensions for people who have to retire at 60 but don’t get their pension until they are 65.
“So we have a bill trying to fix that for persons who work in the public service for gratuity and so forth. How to deal with that,” the prime minister said, referring to the Daily Paid and Minor Salaried Officers (Compassionate Gratuity) Bill 2026, which he will table and the Pensions (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to be tabled by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Public Service, St. Clair Leacock.
“In the past, it’s been done in a kind of ad hoc basis and Cabinet. So we decided that we’ll bring legislation to Parliament to deal with that. That will help a lot of ordinary people, some of the lowest-paid employees in the public service,” Friday said.
“So we want to make that a very sound legal platform for them, and we want to take care of that.”
Regarding the amendment to the Constitution and the election law, the prime minister said:
“Those matters, because they have broad public interest, they will be presented today, but they will go to a select committee so that we can have more public input on them, because they affect, you know, people’s rights, and they affect a lot of people. That’s going to happen. So we’ll introduce it today, but it will not be my it’s not our intention to debate it today.”
He, however, said the government intends to pass the Illiterates Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which he described as “a small little bill … which basically is broadening the scope for persons who can attest to the signature of somebody who can’t read and write.
“And that is something that we, again, ordinary folk, we’re trying to give more access. … that one will take right through today, because it’s a small amendment, but it’s also affects a lot of people, but it’s something I think people can easily understand.”
The prime minister said that the government will also pass the Advance Passenger Information and Passenger Name Record Bill, 2026, a CARICOM bill.
Motion on development bank
Friday, who is also the minister of finance, legal affairs and justice, economic planning, and private sector development, emphasised that the Order Paper includes a motion by government senator, Chelsea Alexander, discussing the establishment of a development bank.
“This is something we campaigned about,” said Friday, who led the New DEmocratic Party (NDP) to a 14-1 victory over the ULP in the November 2025 general election.
“We told people that we will fix things so that there will be credit, more available capital, financing, so when they want to do their little projects and so forth, they can go to this institution,” Friday said.
“I am very, very gung-ho about this. All of my members are, and we will have an opportunity to debate that in Parliament here today, because I think that that is something that people don’t want to hear about. And eventually, we will, later on this year, we’ll bring the bill to the parliament and have that established,” the prime minister told API.
The prime minister said:
“So ordinary folk, small business people, you have a little shop that you’re doing, you need to expand. You need to get some capital. You can’t go to the regular banks. You come to this bank. You have fisher folk who want to buy an engine and so forth, you’re having trouble. This is where you come.
“Small business people, you have a little food processing facility that you want to expand. You want to do your labels and your bottling and so forth, all of those things, you need a little capital, you come, you borrow the money, they help you, they guide you, and you pay back the money, and you go and do your business.”
