By Vernon Daley, Staff ReporterTHE JOINT select committee of Parliament which will examine the proposed Municipalities Act, will have its first meeting Wednesday.
Five members of the Senate were named Friday to sit on the committee - Minister of Justice, A.J. Nicholson, Trevor Munroe and Kern Spencer of the governing People's National Party, and Arthur Williams and Desmond McKenzie of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party - to round off the 13-member panel.
They will sit along with members of the House who were named to the committee on Tuesday. Those members are: Local Government Minister Portia Simpson Miller (chairman), Development Minister Paul Robertson, State Minister of Finance Fitz Jackson and Sharon Hay-Webster from the Government benches, and Charles Learmond, Pearnel Charles, Mike Henry and Abe Dabdoub of the JLP.
On Tuesday, Mrs. Simpson Miller decided to refer the Bill to the joint select committee after Pearnel Charles raised several concerns about the proposed omnibus legislation.
Passage of the Bill is crucial to the long-awaited Portmore Municipality, which would allow the people of the area to elect their mayor directly.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson gave a commitment last year that the people of Portmore, St. Catherine, would have the opportunity to elect their mayor in Local Government elections due by the end of March. However, with the passage of the legislation stalled, speculation has arisen over whether there will be a postponement of the poll.
Portmore community activist George Lee told The Gleaner earlier this week that the Government still had the option of holding the Local Government elections in March, followed closely by the mayoral election in Portmore.
