KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Senate on Friday approved the Representation of the People (Postponement of Elections to Municipal Corporations and City Municipalities) Act, 2023, which gives allowance for local government elections to be held no later than February 28, 2024.

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed the Bill without amendment.

In the Upper House, the Bill was piloted by Leader of Government Business, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, who cited the Government’s focus on post-COVID-19 economic recovery, matched against the cost of holding the elections, as one of the reasons for the postponement.

Also, Johnson Smith pointed to the “high level of uncertainty in the global economic environment”, with nations across the globe facing unpredictable times.

“This Government remains sharply focused on recovery and building resilience in the interests of the Jamaican people. We are in a better place than we were a year ago and indeed, than a year before that. But we cannot afford to risk our progress in the face of global instability,” Johnson Smith said.

She said that the establishment of Portmore as Jamaica’s 15th parish is another factor that the Government has taken into consideration.

She noted that the postponement will allow time for the “vexed issue of the arrangements regarding the attendance of Portmore’s councillors at meetings of the St. Catherine Municipal Corporation” to be addressed.

“Portmore’s achievement of parish status will be an evolution in its local governance and self-expression,” Johnson Smith said.

“Once we have established Portmore as Jamaica’s 15th parish and our resilience is more effectively consolidated, as the global, domestic and economic outlooks improve, the local government elections will be held,” she pointed out.

Local government elections were last held in 2016.

Other contributors to the debate included Government Senators Delroy Williams, Charles Sinclair and Matthew Samuda, who voiced their support for the Bill.