KINGSTON, Jamaica — President of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) William Mahfood has joined others in calling for a fixed election date.

Speaking at the PSOJ President’s Forum at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Tuesday, Mahfood said it is time for the move in order to keep the country out of a state of limbo.

His call follows that of Director of Elections Orrette Fisher, who last month said the Electoral Commission of Jamaica would welcome a fixed election date. Likewise, it comes on the heels of calls from members of civil society and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Just last week, the JLP reiterated that a fixed election date had been a part of its manifesto.

The PSOJ president also welcomed the Government’s decision not to have an election before the end of the year.

At a mass rally in Black River, St Elizabeth, on Sunday, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller made it clear that the country will not go to the polls before year-end.

The prime minister said she was committed to giving young people who recently got enumerated the opportunity to vote in upcoming parliamentary elections.

A voters’ list is expected to be published month end. Some 37,000 Jamaicans have reportedly been added to the list.

Kimberley Hibbert