National Assembly Speaker attends CSPOC meeting |23 January 2013

It was agreed during the meeting that the standing committee meeting of 2017 will be held in Seychelles.

Speaker Herminie was elected to the standing committee as the representative for East Africa in the general conference of the CSPOC held in Trinidad and Tobago in January 2012.

The standing committee meets annually to establish the venues, dates, topics for the biannual conferences, review the rules and consider all matters pertaining to the organisation and conduct of the CSPOC conferences.

The conference of speakers and presiding pfficers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) is a platform that brings together the speakers and presiding officers of national parliaments of the independent sovereign states of the commonwealth.

Its main aim is to maintain, foster and encourage impartiality and fairness on the part of speakers and presiding officers of parliaments.

The conference also promotes knowledge and understanding of parliamentary democracy in its various forms and develops parliamentary institutions.

The standing committee in Swakopmund, Namibia, discussed the upcoming conference to be held in Wellington, New Zealand in January, 2014 and agreed to discuss the following issues:

• Connecting parliament with the people – keeping parliament relevant in the digital age,
• Parliamentary privileges – protecting the effective functioning of democracies,
• The role of the speaker in ensuring good parliamentary governance and management in small parliaments,
• Protecting members’ privacy and that of their families in this era of openness and transparency.

It is to be noted that Seychelles currently holds the chairmanship of the Standing Committee of the Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers for the Africa region and will also be hosting the conference of speakers and presiding officers for the Africa region in October this year.

Speaker Herminie said “the meeting had provided Seychelles with much-needed experience to organise the coming CSPOC Africa region in October”.

He further expressed his satisfaction that the National Assembly of Seychelles is becoming a well respected member of the international community of parliaments.