KINGSTON, Jamaica -Opposition Senator Peter Bunting has accused the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration of “normalising bad governance practices”.

“We see it at the street level; we saw just a few days ago the prime minister on a political campaign tour accompanied by two police pick-ups full of JLP-clad supporters,” Bunting said in the Senate on Friday.

He was making his contribution to the debate on the Political Ombudsman (Amendment) Act, 2024, which was passed by the government without the support of the opposition and paves the way for the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), to take over the roles and functions of the Office of Political Ombudsman (OPO).

The OPO has been non-functioning since November 2022 when the seven-year term of the then ombudsman, Donna Parchment Brown expired.

Despite strong objections and warnings from opposition senators that the ECJ could be brought into disrepute where its commissioners will be asked to referee political disputes, the government side used its superior numbers to pass the legislation. After a lengthy debate and two divide votes the law was passed at approximately 2:20 pm. It was approved in the House of Representatives on Tuesday after similarly strong objections from opposition lawmakers.

On Friday, Bunting told the Upper House that police vehicles were available to transport JLP supporters following Prime Minister Andrew Holness “but there’s not a single working police vehicle at the Alligator Pond Police Station”. He noted that that particular police station covers a large area from Gutters to Junction, to Gutts River.

The former national security minister told his fellow lawmakers that days after the police vehicles were used to transport supporters of a political party “We haven’t heard any statement from the police high command asking the public to desist from that type of behaviour.

“So what we’re going to have, we’re going to have the normalisation of this now; we can expect the continued politicisation of the Jamaica Constabulary Force”.

Continuing, Bunting said “We’re seeing the normalisation of the packing of public service positions with political activists who are unqualified for the role that they’re being asked to play…bad governance”.

“We’re seeing, just last year, the ramming through of a bill amending the constitution to extend the [term] of the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] in office without consultation…bad governance”.

Responding to government senator Ransford Braham who, in his contribution to the debate said the upcoming election made the situation urgent, Bunting remarked that the elections “should not have been a surprise to the government”.

“Is Senator Braham saying really, the government called the election and surprise themselves, because that is what he would want to have us believe if his argument is to be accepted”.

Bunting, who is also leader of opposition business in the senate, pointed out that with the local government election just 17 days away, “There is no way that regulations, administrative arrangements etc., can be put in place for the ECJ to effectively replace the role of the ombudsman. No way, this is just public relations and it is further normalising bad governance”.

He told government senators that if they proceeded to debate and pass the bill “what they would be supporting is incompetence, they would be demonstrating that they support undermining the best traditions of good governance, that they have contempt for this senate and for the people of Jamaica who’re speaking out broadly against this compromising of the role of the ECJ”.

“Most seriously, they’re demonstrating that they totally disregard the precious reputation that this institution has developed on a convention of bipartisanship over many, many decades,” Bunting added.

In her contribution to the debate, opposition Senator Donna Scott-Mottley launched into her government counterpart, Senator Kavan Gayle who, in voicing his support for the bill, described the move by the JLP administration as “good governance”.

Scott-Mottley reminded Gayle that the country had been without a political ombudsman for over a year yet the government was taking a bill to the Senate floor the day after nomination day for the local government election.

“Is that good governance?” she asked Gayle rhetorically, adding that “Is this the lens through which he sees good governance?”

Scott-Mottley argued that with the country knowing that the election had to be held before the end of the month, any government that understands good governance would have taken the opportunity to plan for this possibility.

“What instead that they have done is to rush as usual, just a few days before an election is going to be announced to table and take a bill. Is that good governance?”

The bill was piloted by government Senator Aubyn Hill.

Politicians on both sides of the divide have over the years argued that rulings of the ombudsman are not enforceable and are often ignored by political representatives. They have also argued that the ombudsman is only active during an election cycle.