DEAN Peart, the local government minister, says the postponement of parish council elections, up to December 31 next year, will allow for the advancement of the process of local government reform.

He said, too, that time should allow the administration to conclude more audits of the councils, as well as the need to ensure that the elections are conducted on local governance issues rather than current national issues.

“Postponing the local government elections at this time will allow us to advance this process, and will also help to ensure that when these elections are held it will be on the basis of full understanding of the local governance issues involved, rather than being conducted essentially on the basis of national issues, which is likely to be the case if they are held now,” Peart told the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Although the Opposition did not call for a divide, their nays in the House on Wednesday were overwhelmed by the ayes from the government members, who used the majority to approve the bill postponing the local polls.

The bills postponing the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) and the Parish Councils elections were tabled Tuesday, and their passage now means that local government elections, due from June, do not have to be called prior to December 31, 2007.

The Opposition had rejected the reasons of local government reform and the need for audits explanation, but its energy spokesman, Clive Mullings, accepted that the fear of facing an election, characterised by discussions on national issues, was the basis of the decision.

Some government spokesmen, including Minister of Agriculture Roger Clarke actually admitted that the primary reason for the postponement was political, but indicated that it was not the first time this had happened.

Opposition spokesperson on local government Shahine Robinson felt that the decision robbed the JLP-controlled councils of seeking another mandate from the electorate based on their performance over the past 3 1/2 years.

She accused the government of carrying out a witch-hunt against the councils for cheap political gain, in terms of the audits of the councils, and suggested that the bill brought into sharp focus the need for fixed election dates.

But, it was the Opposition’s spokesman on Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw who took the fight to the government claiming that the delay was another act of victimisation against the councils and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

He said that it would have been better if the government had allowed the voters to decide whether they wanted to keep the councils in JLP hands or not.

“The real reason for the further postponement of the elections is, first of all, that the government knows that if it calls local government elections now, they would not only lose those they had lost already, they would also lose the Portmore municipality and the Westmoreland Parish Council and we would take back Portland, and they know it,” Shaw said.

He said that the postponement was a prelude to the victimisation and further marginalisation of the councils to seek to weaken the JLP in an attempt to win the next general election.