For­mer head of the Pub­lic Ser­vice Regi­nald Du­mas says the Gov­ern­ment and the Op­po­si­tion should strive hard­er in the fu­ture to nom­i­nate a Pres­i­dent by con­sen­sus.Du­mas said so when ques­tioned about the nom­i­na­tion of Jus­tice An­tho­ny Car­mona for the post. He is ex­pect­ed to be elect­ed un­op­posed as the coun­try's fifth Pres­i­dent when the elec­toral col­lege meets next week Fri­day.

Car­mona's nom­i­na­tion has been en­dorsed by many peo­ple.Du­mas said yes­ter­day he did not know Car­mona very well but had heard on­ly good things about the Pres­i­dent-des­ig­nate.On the pro­ce­dure for elect­ing a head of state, Du­mas said the time had come for the Gov­ern­ment and the Op­po­si­tion to gen­uine­ly seek to nom­i­nate a can­di­date by con­sen­sus.

Asked whether the nine In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors who were ap­point­ed by Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards should re­sign when Car­mona as­sumes of­fice next month, Du­mas said: "They should all of­fer their res­ig­na­tions."He said it would be the prop­er thing to do as they were ap­point­ed by Richards and the new Pres­i­dent should be giv­en to op­tion to ac­cept or re­ject their res­ig­na­tions.

He said it would be im­prop­er for them to in­sist they were stay­ing be­cause they were ap­point­ed by Richards.