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JAM | Jan 25, 2022

Another postponement anticipated for Jamaican local government elections

/ Our Today

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Bill tabled in Parliament to postpone national polls until COVID-19 is under control

Gordon House.

Local government elections, which were due to be held on or before February 27 this year, are being pushed back yet again.

The Government in Parliament today tabled a bill to delay the municipal poll, which is to be held every four years. The last local government elections were conducted on November 28, 2016.

The bill, which seeks to postpone the municipal poll, is entitled, The Representation of the People (Postponement of Elections to Municipal Corporations and City Municipalities) Act, 2022.

In November 2020, the House of Representatives approved amendments to the Representation of the People Act to allow for the local government polls to be deferred up to February 27, 2022. However, in November last year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared at the Jamaica Labour Party’s 78 Annual Conference that there were no immediate plans for local government elections.

He told party supporters that, with the new COVID variant and all the pressures of the virus, the time was not appropriate for politics and elections.  

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