Final preparations for official opening of Parliament tomorrow

Approximately 500 guests have been invited to the official opening of Parliament tomorrow and the historic West Wing will be opened to accommodate the large numbers.

Clerk of Parliament Pedro Eastmond tonight told The Nation it would be “a soft opening” for the West Wing because they still have to outfit some of the rooms, which have been under renovation for the past two or three years.

“It’s being called into use tomorrow to accommodate those invited guests to Parliament because the Senate Chamber in terms of capacity, comfortable capacity, can seat 218 persons and we’re going to have close to 500 or more invited guests tomorrow. So the West Wing is being used and both wings are connected so that whatever is streamed on the East Wing is beamed to the West Wing,” Eastmond explained.

“So those guests who will be in the West Wing will get to see members in the Lower Chamber (House of Assembly) conducting business. You will get to see members in the Ermie Bourne Committee Room, which for tomorrow’s event would be effectively where the Senate meets and conducts its formal business, and the Senate Chamber where the formal opening [will take place].

“We’ll see also for the first time the speech delivered by the President of Barbados will not be the traditional speech that outlines the government’s programme but rather the President’s address; essentially what the President will be looking to see the Parliament achieve in this five-year term.”

Eastmond said history would be made in the choosing of the Speaker of the House of Assembly. For the first time since Parliament opened in June 1639, the Speaker will be elected from someone who did not face the electorate, becoming the 31st member of the House of Assembly.

Workmen were busy putting the finishing touches to the Public Building in historic Bridgetown for the ceremony, which is scheduled to commence at 4 p.m. The red carpet was being installed on the stairs, pristine white tents were already erected and the courtyard was scrubbed clean in preparation for the reception which follows the pomp and pageantry.

“This is almost the biggest event in the Parliamentary cycle, the opening of Parliament. This is one event where you hardly get anybody refusing an invitation or declining an invitation to come,” Eastmond noted.

“The Senate Chamber, where the majority of the ceremony will take place, is the place where the whole governance of Barbados is found in there in terms of those officials who are very critical to the success of Parliament, the success of government and the Westminster tradition as we know it will be on full display. Yes, we are a republic, but we still follow that Westminster tradition.”

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