The governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is back to having 49 members in the House of Representatives after former Speaker Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert and former Councillor for the Chancery Hall division in the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation, Duane Smith, were sworn in as Members of Parliament Tuesday afternoon.

The two were victorious in by-elections held last month to fill vacancies in Dalrymple-Philibert’s old seat of Trelawny Southern and the St Andrew North West seat that became vacant with the resignation of the former Minister of Finance, Dr Nigel Clarke.

Dalrymple-Philibert resigned from the Trelawny Southern seat in September 2023 after a damning report from the Integrity Commission recommended that she be criminally prosecuted for failing for several years to declare a high-end motor vehicle as part of her statutory declarations. That matter is yet to be resolved.

Smith is the son of former National Security Minister Derrick Smith, who held the seat for 29 years until his retirement from representational politics in 2018. The younger Smith had always intended to replace his father in the seat but had to give way for Dr Clarke who Prime Minister Andrew Holness had tapped to be finance minister. Six-and-a-half years later that dream has now been fulfilled after Clarke vacated the seat to take up a deputy managing director position at the International Monetary Fund.