The People’s National Party Youth Organisation (PNPYO) said it has welcomed Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ belated embrace of calls for making Jamaica a republic, something the YO said “he had recently touted as mere symbolism”.

Noting that both the Government and Opposition agree on moving the country to a republic, Acting PNPYO President Dexroy Martin said Holness “has now joined the PNP, and other groups, who have been championing this cause from as early as 1962”.

Twice the PNP had sought to fix this anomaly in the judicial system “but twice the Jamaica Labour Party voted against it, thus preventing this needed change”, he lamented in a press statement last week.

Martin added: “A corollary to that move is Jamaica divesting itself of appeals to Her Majesty in council through the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), and acceding to the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as a final court of appeal. The anachronistic system of appeals to the JCPC has no place in Jamaica’s judicial system and makes a mockery of our Independence…

“If the Government is sincere about completing our Independence and truly wants to send a signal in our 60th year, the prime minister must instruct the necessary officers to bring the required Bills to Parliament for debate and passage.”

He said that with the Opposition’s support firmly behind this move, there was no reason for any further delay as the Bills had been drafted since 2015 and just need to be dusted off and updated. All it takes is the will by the Government to start the process, said Martin.