ST JAMES, Jamaica — Government Minister and former Mayor of Montego Bay, Homer Davis is confident that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will not experience any fallout because of previous decisions to push back the local government election.

Davis is predicting that the JLP will retain the majority of seats across the island when voters go to the polls.

Local Government and Community Development Minister Desmond McKenzie is expected to announce the election date at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James this afternoon.

Davis, who is the Member of Parliament for St James Southern and the Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister (West), also shared his views on the contentious issue of a fixed election date.

“There was a justification for each time it was delayed and it was the wisdom of the Minister of Local Government to take the necessary legislation to Parliament to have it postponed for a further 12 months period. But that period has now been over and now we are where we are today,” Davis said.

On February 21, 2023, McKenzie told the House of Representatives that the local government election, which was due earlier that year on February 28, was postponed for a third time until February 28, 2024.

The election, which was last held in 2016 and was due in November 2020, was postponed due to the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic despite the holding of a general election two months earlier.

-Anthony Lewis