KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Spokesperson on Energy Phillip Paulwell is calling for the government, specifically Prime Minister Andrew Holness, to clarify the cause of the system failure responsible for Friday’s islandwide blackout.

In a statement on Saturday, Paulwell said Holness also needs to tell the people of Jamaica when they can expect full restoration and stability in power supply, instead of what he described as a vague promise and still no full restoration after 14 hours.

Citing a similar islandwide outage in August 2016, where a formal probe was ordered and recommendations were submitted to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), Paulwell said at that time, the Prime Minister committed to the country in a nationwide address that the government would ensure such an occurrence would never be repeated.

“Jamaicans cannot be asked to simply endure darkness and move on,” said Paulwell.

“The OUR must account for what was done with the 2016 recommendations. If they were implemented, why are we here again? If they were not, who is responsible for that failure of oversight?”

Paulwell wants the OUR to issue an urgent public report detailing what actions were taken following the 2016 probe. He is also calling for JPS to publish a full, transparent account of Friday night’s failure.

The opposition spokesman questioned whether lightning was truly the initial cause, as suggested, stressing that “If the claim is that we are building back with resilience, this is a complete contradiction”.

The Member of Parliament for East Kingston and Port Royal said that the economic and social costs of islandwide blackouts fall hardest on ordinary Jamaicans, businesses losing revenue, households losing food, airports in chaos and hospitals straining under emergency conditions.

“This cannot become a cycle of failure, probe, silence, and repeat,” Paulwell said, adding that, “Accountability is not optional. It is owed.”