Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the bill to make Portmore the 15th parish is ready to go to Parliament, however, it will not be passed in the height of preparations for the local government elections.

The prime minister’s statement follows concerns raised by the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) about the government’s true intention to make Portmore the island’s 15th. The opposition party contends that it is being done for the Government to gain a political advantage in the upcoming local government elections in February.

However, Holness has dismissed those claims, noting that “the issue at play here is whether or not we are going to do this at the local government election: No! I said it Sunday, I will say it again, clearly. Our bill is ready to go to Parliament. It has been ready for some time now, (but) we will not take it to Parliament. We will probably go to Parliament, we will table it but we will not pass it because there is no way that we could seek to establish a parish and it be clouded in political accusations,” Holness said.

He was speaking on Wednesday, January 17, during a ceremony organised by the Urban Development Commission (UDC) to announce the commencement date of work for the development of the long-delayed Portmore Resilience Park.

This development project is part of the Government’s plans to transform Portmore into the country’s next parish.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding has called for the Government to cease all efforts to make Portmore the 15th parish because it has no material benefit to the people of Portmore.

“It [has] long been clear to us that the objective of the conversion of Portmore from a city municipality to a parish is driven by a narrow, partisan, and self-serving desire to separate the people of Portmore from the rest of St Catherine in order to secure political control of the Spanish Town Municipal Corporation,” the opposition leader wrote in a letter to the prime minister.

Golding further added that these suspicions were confirmed by Cabinet member Everald Warmington who, in a public statement in November, said that the boundaries of Portmore would be changed to ensure that key areas within two Portmore constituencies, which have predominantly voted for the (PNP), will no longer be in those constituencies.

But Holness said as the municipality of Portmore grows and changes, it positions itself aptly for parish status.

In 2022, the House of Representatives gave its approval for Portmore to become Jamaica’s 15th parish.

READ: Golding demands halt to efforts to make Portmore a parish

READ: PM says nothing political about parish-status push for Portmore