Probably some who transformed the National Arena and surroundings into a sea of green at last Sunday’s Jamaica Labour Party national conference — and we suspect some Jamaicans — had expected party leader and Prime Minister Andrew Holness to ‘fly the gate’ for local government elections.

We suspect, though, that before naming the date the prime minister wants to maximise advantage from projects yet to be completed. Those include the bothersome south-eastern coastal highway and ongoing patching/repair of badly scoured and potholed main roads across the country.

It’s well-established in Jamaican politics that, as much as possible, the incumbent must attend to roads ahead of an election.

It’s a virtual certainty that, barring a national emergency, the local government elections will be held by late February 2024. That’s based on a year-long extension pushed through Parliament by the Government in February.

Of course, the local elections will be the forerunner of the truly big one, the parliamentary poll constitutionally due September 2025, though Prime Minister Andrew Holness has the right to call it at any time before or three months after that, if he so chooses.

Even in the heyday of partisan political support, many Jamaicans treated local government elections as little more than an afterthought, with voting typically low.

Given the record low returns in the parliamentary election of 2020, with just 38 per cent of those eligible bothering to vote, that depressing trend will probably continue for the upcoming local poll.

Yet, regardless of voter turnout, results will be seen as an indicator of what’s up ahead. The Government — already under pressure from recent poll findings — will be anxious for evidentiary approval of its work over the last seven years.

And, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) needs to demonstrate growing traction.

For many Jamaicans, though, a nagging question relates to the relevance of costly, cumbersome municipal corporations in modern Jamaica. Couldn’t tightly structured administrative offices in parish capitals which cater to the needs of people at the local level and which report to Parliament be more suitable given modern realities?

No doubt local authorities, as currently structured, made sense generations ago, especially in deep rural Jamaica when the road network was abysmal and telecommunication services equally inadequate.

Today’s click-of-a-button communication technologies and rapidly advancing modern highways have changed much.

Also, for years, we have heard complaints of councillors — from both sides — regarding seemingly growing disregard by central government.

Unwittingly perhaps, Mr Holness gave sustenance to that concern on Sunday when he reiterated plans for a $40-billion road repair programme — first announced in March during the budget debate.

As he did in March, Mr Holness spoke on Sunday of a plan to have parliamentarians consult with their constituents on the roads that should get priority treatment. Maybe we missed it, but we heard no reference to divisional councillors who, in theory, should be closest to people at the community level.

Then there is corruption. For many Jamaicans the 2020 fraud case involving the Manchester Municipal Corporation, which led to severe penalties, including imprisonment for some employees, was reflective of a country-wide problem.

Regardless of which party is triumphant in the upcoming poll, questions about the value, credibility, and relevance of the municipalities, as currently structured, won’t go away.