PNP candidates ready to install campaign signs amid injunction

WESTERN BUREAU:

Dr Andre Haughton has hailed Monday’s Supreme Court injunction as a “victory for the people”, following a ruling that bars the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) from removing campaign signs belonging to prospective People’s National Party (PNP) candidates in the upcoming general election.

Haughton, along with fellow candidates Senator Janice Allen and Allan Bernard, expressed satisfaction with the decision by Justice Lorna Shelly-Williams, who also granted the trio the right to apply for judicial review of the corporation’s actions. The candidates were represented by attorney Maurice McCurdy.

“A victory for me is a victory for the people, and the law has spoken. It is very sad when we have people in leadership who do not understand the law of the land, and it paints a bad picture for the leadership of the StJMC,” said Haughton, who is seeking to represent St James West Central.

Senator Janice Allen, the PNP’s candidate for St James Central, welcomed the ruling and said shes ready to ramp up her campaign. “We always believed we were acting within the law, and the court’s decision affirms that belief,” she told The Gleaner. “This ruling reinforces the importance of respecting democratic processes. What the StJMC did was clearly wrong.”

Allen, who is eyeing St James Central, told The Gleaner that she looks forward to reinstalling her campaign billboards, which were among several taken down by the StJMC.

“We welcome the decision and ruling by the Supreme Court, and we always were of the view that this is the direction that it would go, because we were confident that we were on the right side of the law,”said Allen.

“I look forward to immediately resuming the campaign process and reinstalling my billboards, and I will be proceeding to installing additional boards that I do have,” added Allen.

BASIS OF CHALLENGE

The legal challenge was based on the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations of 1978, which the candidates argued exempts political advertisements from requiring municipal permission during an election period. While a date has not yet been set, a general election is constitutionally due by September 2025.

Allan Bernard, the PNP candidate for St James North Western, called the removal of signs by Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon “unorthodox” and “unexpected”.

“I think that the move [to take down the signs] was quite unorthodox, and we never expected that, and we were concerned. The responses that were coming from the political platform from the other side, and even some of the media conversations that the mayor had, we were taken aback at that, [but] we are a lot clearer now as to how we proceed; meaning our signs were erected lawfully and they were taken down unlawfully,” said Bernard.

When contacted for a comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling, Vernon directed The Gleaner to speak with the StJMC’s chief executive officer, Naudia Crosskill, who attended Monday’s hearing. However, attempts to contact Crosskill proved unsuccessful.

CLEAR PATH

McCurdy said the way is now clear for the substantive matter to be heard.

“Having established that the applicants have a good arguable case, the applicants are now allowed to file a fixed-date claim form before the court seeking to overturn the decision of the corporation in respect of their motion to restrict and prohibit political paraphernalia and advertisements in the municipality of St James,” he told The Gleaner , adding that the StJMC has asked the court for a stay of execution until they file their appeal to stay the judgment until their appeal.

In April, Vernon had instructed all electoral candidates to remove campaign materials from public spaces acroos the parish that had not received approval from the municipal authority, threatening that they woud be removed, and that the candidates would be fined for each poster.

Haughton said he will be making checks with the corporation on the signs that have been removed.

christopher. thomas@gleanerjm.com