The Government signalled its intention to engage in electoral and constitutional reform in the 2025 Throne Speech. Two of the matters identified for attention were absentee voting and revisiting the number of MPs.

This is a welcome start. Of course, this will not be as straightforward as amending the rules of the House of Assembly to better facilitate debate on the estimates.

Mind you, absentee ballots shouldn’t be too hard. Their introduction appears to enjoy not only cross-party support, but that of the wider community. There should be no issue beyond that of the actual nuts and bolts of drafting.

The number of MPs has long been the subject of discussion and comment, and the general criticism is that Bermuda has too many — 36 — for the size of the electorate. There may be more room for discussion and debate here on the preferred number.

The Government shared its approach in the Throne Speech this way:

“Electoral and constitutional reform should mirror the times in which we live, and the strength of systems is in their ability to adjust to meet the demands of the times.”

Quite. The approach sounds reasonable — and is sound.

There is absolutely no reason why electoral and constitutional reform should stand still. On the contrary. Our systems of government date back more than 50 years. The Bermuda Constitution Order was adopted in 1968. A lot of what we have today flowed from what was regarded in its time a progressive and major step forward for Bermuda with the introduction of responsible government.

There have been changes since, the most noteworthy and significant of which was the move to single-seat constituencies of equal size at the turn of this century after the election, for the first time, of a Progressive Labour Party government.

Annual voter registration was also done away with and we now have a continual “rolling” register that relies on party scrutineers and the voters themselves to keep the voting register up to date. There are challenges and they, too, might merit a review — such as, for example, voters on the register who have long since left the island but are no longer ordinarily resident and thus no longer qualify under present legislation for the purposes of voting. This review would dovetail neatly, and nicely, with the introduction of absentee ballots.

On constitutional and electoral reform, the Government was also careful in the Throne Speech to point out that the stage has been set only “for the commencement of a fulsome consultative process”. We wait to see what form this will take.

The last time we moved to single-seat constituencies and new boundaries reducing the number of MPs from 40 to 36, the work was carried out by the Boundaries Commission established under the 1968 Constitution Order — two representatives from each of the two parties and two independent members appointed by the Governor. A fair and even mix. There was opportunity for representations at public meetings and in writing. The commission worked without political rancour and reported unanimously on numbers and boundaries.

This may be the way to go again on how many.

But the scope may need to be wider this time around. It won’t be just a matter of selecting a number and drawing new boundaries. If the number of MPs is to be reduced, consideration must also be given to reducing the size of Cabinet in proportion. Our system of government works best when there are a sufficient number of backbenchers, opposition and government, to hold the executive to account and to keep expenditure in check. They populate the committees that provide oversight in the legislature. That’s the theory — and it is worth preserving. This balance is an important feature of the Westminster style of government.

The next question is what of the Senate? It should not be exempt from constitutional examination and it may well go beyond just a question of numbers. Consideration might be given to whether they ought to be elected and for a fixed term, and by some form of proportional representation so the Upper House is more reflective of the popular vote.

Or maybe we just do away with a Senate altogether. There again, the Senate rarely seems to feature when it comes to talk of constitutional reform and reducing the number of legislators.

Odd, that.

• John Barritt is a former elected member of the Bermuda legislature where he served for 18 years. Dialogue is welcome. John may be reached at jbarritt@ibl.bm