KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Opposition legislators have refused to support legislation, further postponing the Local Government Elections (LGE) to February 28, 2024. The postponement is the third since 2021.
Opposition Leader, Mark Golding, told Parliament on Tuesday that the position had continued when the LGE, due in February 2021, was put off because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“When Jamaica was reeling, they called a general election in the heights of COVID, and they came to this Parliament to extend it for a year, citing COVID as the reason. In February 2022, they brought legislation here [and] on the day the prime minister announced in this House that there would be no need for the disaster risk management orders. Social distancing was a thing of the past, and Jamaica was back to normal and would be building back for recovery. It was spurious then, and this is spurious now,” Golding said.
But Local Government Minister, Desmond McKenzie, tabling the Representation of the People (Postponement of Elections to Municipal Corporation and City Municipalities) Act, 2023, said the government had weighed “the balance, and we believe at this time where the country is, the fact that we have to consider important issues, an election is important, but I urge the patience of the country, to understand and respect the decision of the government.”
McKenzie said that the government needed more time to carry out consultations around draft legislation to establish Portmore as Jamaica’s 15th parish.
“The Portmore Municipal Council has requested further consultation time; we want when the time rolls around, the people will be allowed to cast their vote as the 15th parish of Jamaica,” McKenzie said.
However, Golding dismissed the argument, telling legislators that the repeated postponements were a disgrace and the People’s National Party (PNP) legislators would not support the measure.
He recalled that the Local Governance Act passed in February 2016, amended the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) by inserting an eighth schedule to provide for a fixed four-year cycle for local government elections.
Golding said this included a 90-day window, beginning on the fourth anniversary of the last local government elections, but “there was no provision for an extension.”
Leader of Opposition Business, Phillip Paulwell, said the opposition was not convinced by the government’s position, particularly the economic concerns, given that the government “brag every day, about recovering stronger.
“It is incomprehensible. What is the real reason for postponing the local government elections,” Paulwell said, noting that it is tragic that for years local government has not been given the priority it deserves, having previously been reduced to a department of government.
The country last had local government elections in November 2016. The Electoral Office of Jamaica has indicated that it needs just over one billion (One Jamaica dollar=US$0.008 cents) to hold the elections.
McKenzie told Parliament that the government did not fear facing the electorate, saying, “our track record is clear.”
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