Cost cutter polls

Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby says he has proposed the twinning of three by-elections with the general election, constitutionally due months from now, to cut cost to the country.

The update comes more than five months after three divisions — Olympic Gardens, Denham Town and Chancery Hall — became vacant due to the deaths of councillors Christopher Townsend and Jermaine Hyatt, and the resignation of Duane Smith.

“I’ve written a letter to the minister [of local government] to indicate to him that, given that there is a pending general election, we believe that it would have been

cost-effective if we have both at the same time,” Swaby, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Vineyard Town Division, told The Gleaner following a meeting of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation on Tuesday.

Townsend, the councillor for the Olympic Gardens Division in St Andrew West Central, died suddenly on November 13.

Hyatt, who is the councillor for the Denham Town Division in Kingston Western, died at the Spanish Town Hospital on November 30 of what is suspected to have been a heart attack.

The vacancy in the Chancery Hall Division in St Andrew North Western arose after Smith successfully contested a by-election to represent the constituency in Parliament on November 22.

The three divisions, which fall within the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation, are strongholds for the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

A clean sweep of the by-elections by the JLP would move the division count to 20 for both parties and would not alter the balance of power within the municipal corporation. The PNP currently holds a 20-to-17 majority and the popular vote.

However, Section 4(5) of the 2016 Local Governance Act states that a by-election to fill a vacancy in any electoral division must be held the day the chairperson of the municipal corporation directs, by order published in the Gazette, after consultation with the chief electoral officer.

Section 4(5)(a) and (b) indicate that this must be within three months after the vacancy has been entered in the minutes of the council or a day within three months, after notice in writing, of the occurrence of the vacancy has been given to the chairperson of the municipal corporation by two persons who were entitled to vote at the last election of a councillor for that electoral division.

The act further states that no by-election is to be held if a vacancy occurs within one year before the next general election. ‘General election’ in the Local Governance Act is defined as the general election of councillors.

Jamaicans last voted in a local government election in February.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com