THE Municipalities Bill will not be passed this legislative year, as the joint select committee of the houses of Parliament did not complete their review of the legislation at Wednesday’s sitting and have scheduled a follow-up meeting for March 27.

However, even with the completion of the review on March 27 it will not go before the House until the new fiancial year as Parliament will be prorogued on March 29. It reconvenes on April 4 with the official opening for the 2003/4 fiscal year, during which the Government’s plans and programmes for the new year will be outlined in the Throne Speech to be delivered by the governor-general. The estimates of expenditure for 2003/4 will also be tabled by the finance minister later that afternoon.

The passage of the bill will pave the way for the urban centre of Portmore in St Catherine to be granted municipal status, and to allow resident of the community to directly elect their mayor.

In a heated seven-hour meeting Wednesday, the bipartisan committee reviewing the bill focused mainly on Section three, which deals with the establishment of a municipality. Two clauses in particular, which deal with citizens’ petition for municipality, earned the ire of Opposition members. They expressed concerns that some citizens would be excluded from giving their opinion by virtue of neither being on the official list of electors nor aligned to a community organisation that is recognised or registered with the Social Development Commission (SDC).

The Opposition also objected to a clause in the bill which states that the minister may declare an order, based on a petition signed by “not less than seven per cent of the inhabitants of the area of the proposed municipality”.

Led by Opposition MPs, Pearnel Charles and Abe Dabdoub, the JLP members were insistent that a referendum of eligible voters — not a seven per cent sample — was necessary in order to truly reflect the will of the people. Eventually, however, the committee moved toward a compromise based on a suggestion by Government senator, Trevor Munroe.

He proposed that any referendum or other means of polling on the decision to request municipal status be done only in the context of “clear disagreement” within the community. In addition, the clause requiring that community organisations be recognised by the SDC before they could petition the minister was dropped, allowing all groups of citizens to have an equal say.

Members of the Portmore community, many of whom took time off from work to emphasise their interest in the issue, intently watched the proceedings from the visitors’ gallery. But at the end of the day, as was the case last week, they left disappointed and disheartened by the bill’s slow progress through Parliament.

“We are not impressed,” Carol McLean, chairman of the Portmore Joint Citizen’s Association told the Observer .

She added that she and her colleagues had expected the committee to cover more ground, and she expressed concern that the bill’s passing would be drawn out for an inordinately long time.

“We never expected them to finish everything today, but we certainly thought that they would have made much more progress. But the first session this morning was spent debating only two clauses in section one, and eventually, they came right back around to the same position,” said McLean.

Just last week, local government minister Portia Simpson Miller took the bill to the lower house, where it was harshly critiqued by Opposition members, who later requested that the matter be sent to a joint select committee for further review.

Simpson Miller acceded to the request, and on Tuesday, Prime Minister P J Patterson announced another postponement of the pending local government elections, in order, he said, to allow for further reform of local government – including the passage of the Municipalities Act.

Also in attendance at Wednesday’s joint sitting were members of the Portmore Minister’s Fraternal; George Lee, community activist who has expressed interest in running as an independent mayoral candidate for Portmore; and former local government minister, Easton Douglas, who addressed the committee.