Change to open seats needs 73 votes

By JEFFREY ELAPA
PARLIAMENT needs an absolute majority of 73 votes today to pass an amendment to the Organic Law for it to change the number of open seats to 89.
Leader of government business Moses Maladina said it was important that parliament passed the bill to avoid legal complications.
Maladina, the minister for rural development and implementation, said the Constitution stated that there should be 110 open seats from 89 after abolishing the regional seats by 2012.
He said when parliament decided to re-introduce the regional seats last year, the open seats also needed to be returned to 89.
Maladina said since the boundary commission was not ready with its report, parliament decided to bring back the regional seats but did not re-introduce the 89 seats.
Therefore, he said the open seats bill would be the important business of the government to allow the open seats to be brought back to 89 before the June polls.
He is calling on all 108 members of parliament to attend today’s sitting so that the bill could be passed.
If it does not, Maladina said he would keep trying until he got the 73 votes.
The 2010 National Council of Women Amendment Bill is also scheduled for introduction today