{"id":2142,"date":"2023-12-04T23:19:25","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T23:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/?page_id=2142"},"modified":"2024-09-07T01:46:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T01:46:03","slug":"constitution","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"2142\" class=\"elementor elementor-2142\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-bfaf531 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"bfaf531\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e5ff33b elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"e5ff33b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 10-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">CONSTITUTION<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e211198 elementor-widget__width-initial elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"e211198\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 10-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>JAP thinks that the present constitution does not serve the best&nbsp;interest of the populace and country as it gives too much power to the&nbsp;government and lacks the necessary checks and balances. As such it&nbsp;will seek to draft a new constitution after extensive consultation with&nbsp;the public, private sector interest, nongovernmental organizations,&nbsp;religious organizations and the various political parties. All attempts&nbsp;will be made to reach a consensus with all the groups as much as it&nbsp;is possible.<br>Some of the major issues that will be considered are:<br>1. Term Limits for the Prime Minister.<br>2. Length of term for Prime Minister and other positions.<br>3. Fixed election date.<br>4. By-election dates to be set by the electoral commission within a fix timeframe.<br>5. MPs &nbsp;and Councillors being a resident of the constituency they&nbsp;serve.<br>6 &nbsp;Election of Senators.<br>7. An executive leader of the country selected directly by the voters.<br>8. Ministers being picked from the public, followed by a public&nbsp;hearing and a vote by the parliament or senate.<br>9. Fixed set of Ministries with any new or variation being approved by&nbsp;a set majority of the parliament and senate.<br>10. The entrenchment of the local government system with adequate&nbsp;power and resources to deal with local issues.<br>11. Methods used in making appointments to public and school&nbsp;boards.<br>12. Limits on borrowing power of government.<br>13. Impeachment and removal of public officials to include MPs.<br>14. Immunity of officials.<br>15. Pardon powers<br>16. Cruel and unusual punishment<br>17. Bill of rights for citizens&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>18. Searches and seizures powers<br>19. Right to a speedy trial<br>20. The Bail Act<br>21. Double jeopardy<br>22. Clarity of the constitution for easy understanding<\/p>\n<p>JAP is of the firm belief that a new constitution would serve the better&nbsp;governance of the&nbsp;country. Among the changes we think that should&nbsp;be included are that &nbsp;the Prime Minister&nbsp;should be limited to serve no&nbsp;more than two terms and that our general election cycle should be every&nbsp;four years instead of the present five and municipal elections should be every four years. There should also be a fixed&nbsp;election date which can&nbsp;only be varied with the approval of two thirds&nbsp;of the parliament. In the case of the need for a&nbsp;by-election, the date&nbsp;should be decided by the electoral commission for the earliest suitable&nbsp;time. Members of Parliament like Councillors should reside in the&nbsp;constituency which they&nbsp;represent.&nbsp;<br>JAP supports the selection of senators by the voters. The&nbsp;change to a republican form of government will be a long&nbsp;term goal of&nbsp;JAP. Ministers of the government should be picked from the public&nbsp;and be subjected to questions and a vote. The constitution dictates&nbsp;that at least two senators and a maximum of four must be appointed&nbsp;as ministers. We have had every ministry, except finance which the&nbsp;constitution forbids, headed by a person whom has been picked at the sole&nbsp;discretion of the prime minister. There is no reason why all the&nbsp;ministers should not be picked from members of the public and be subjected to an approval process while the MPs be left to legislate&nbsp;and serve their constituents. The number and types of ministries should&nbsp;be fixed and any new ministry or variation being approved by a two&nbsp;thirds majority of the parliament and senate. The limits on the&nbsp;government ability to borrow and under what condition it is done will&nbsp;be stipulated in the constitution.<br>The local government system will be entrenched in the constitution&nbsp;with adequate power and resources to look about local issues. Local&nbsp;government will no longer be a pawn of central government. The&nbsp;method by which school boards and public boards are appointed will&nbsp;be decided as the running of these institution are of great importance&nbsp;in the governance of the country. Too often, these board positions are&nbsp;simply given to party faithfuls many of who have no training or&nbsp;experience in the field that they are serving. The impeachment and&nbsp;removal of public officials including MPs and Senators will be&nbsp;included. Persons having immunity and &nbsp;under what condition that&nbsp;they will have this immunity will be decided. The power to pardon&nbsp;persons, by whom and under what conditions will be decided.<br>The rights of the prosecution to appeal both the verdict and sentences&nbsp;in criminal cases is supported by JAP. However, the&nbsp;government should cover the &#8216;defence&#8217; cost in any such hearings. Consideration will be given,&nbsp; if Double&nbsp;Jeopardy should be abolished and persons retried in any case where new irrefutable&nbsp;evidence &nbsp;have come to light that strongly indicates the guilt of the&nbsp;defendant. Again the government would have to cover&nbsp;the defendant&#8217;s&nbsp;cost.<br>JAP believes that every person is entitled to the following rights and&nbsp;fundamental freedoms therefore a&nbsp; bill of rights&#8217; &nbsp;in the constitution&nbsp;will be develop to cover and protect them:<br>The right to life;<br>The right to equality, equal protection and equal benefit in law;<br>Human dignity;<br>Freedom and security;<br>Protection from slavery, servitude &amp; forced labour;<br>Protection from cruel and unusual punishment;<br>Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures;<br>Freedom of conscience, religion, belief and opinion;<br>Freedom of expression;<br>Freedom of the media;<br>The right of access to information;<br>Freedom of association;<br>The right of assembly, demonstration, picketing and petition;<br>Political rights;<br>Consumer rights;<br>Freedom of movement and residence;<br>Protection of right to property;<br>Fair labour practices;<br>The right to a clean and healthy environment;<br>Right to economic and social rights (health, housing, food, water,&nbsp;social security &amp; education)<br>Fair administrative action;<br>The right of access to bail;<br>The right of access to justice;<br>The right to a fair and speedy hearing or trial;<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CONSTITUTION JAP thinks that the present constitution does not serve the best&nbsp;interest of the populace and country as it gives too much power to the&nbsp;government and lacks the necessary checks and balances. As such it&nbsp;will seek to draft a new constitution after extensive consultation with&nbsp;the public, private sector interest, nongovernmental organizations,&nbsp;religious organizations and the various &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/constitution\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Constitution<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2142","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3363,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2142\/revisions\/3363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}