A parliament committee scrutinising a bill to change sections of the constitution relating to the Senate yesterday agreed that senators should be allowed to serve back-to-back terms.
The majority of the panel yesterday approved a proposed amendment to Section 117 of the constitution, which prohibits senators who serve a full six years from serving back-to-back terms.
The panel previously endorsed a proposed amendment to Section 111 which seeks to do away with appointed senators.
There are currently 150 senators, with one elected from each province and the rest appointed by a selection committee.
Under the proposed amendment, the number of senators is set at 200 and they would all be elected.
The 200 senators will be elected nationwide with the number of senators from each province based on its population.
Under the proposed amendment to Section 117, elected senators could run in back-to-back elections.
The majority of the panel yesterday also agreed to slash the term of elected senators to four years instead of six. Since the senators would be allowed to serve back-to-back terms, there was no need for them to serve a six-year term.
The panel agreed to retain Section 116, which prohibits senators from holding political office within two years of leaving their post.