McKenzie’s time to shine
Potential delay backlash, pension concerns add complexity to election decision
Published:Sunday | January 14, 2024 | 12:05 AMErica Virtue - Senior Gleaner Writer
The spotlight is now fixed on Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie as the country awaits his announcement of the date for the long-overdue local government elections.
McKenzie, a deputy leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), will be among the officials ratifying its slate of candidates for the polls at a meeting of its Central Executive today.
The elections, which are constitutionally due every four years, were last held in November 2016. They were due to be held in November 2020 but were postponed as the country was still in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic. Delayed multiple times since then, they are now due by February 28.
Sunday Gleaner calculations show that if the polls are to be held during the Ash Wednesday midterm break to limit disruption to the school calendar – as many institutions are used as polling stations – the elections must be announced by the end of this week.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are popular days for both local government and general elections, and with Ash Wednesday being a public holiday, Tuesday, February 13, and Thursday, February 15, are viable options. Should the Government go this route, schools would also be asked to take uniformed midterm holidays to facilitate non-disruption.
JLP General Secretary Dr Horace Chang said today’s meeting would settle the final list of candidates for all 228 divisions for the 14 municipal bodies, including the Portmore municipality, which directly elects its mayor.
The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has at least one division to settle, following the death of a potential Westmoreland candidate just over a week ago.
A prominent JLP figure told The Sunday Gleaner that the full complement of delegates is not expected to be in attendance at today’s meeting as it is a “non-voting one”, there being no challenge to the sitting chairman, Robert Montague; general secretary, Chang; and deputy general secretary, Dr Aundre Franklin.
“There is no reason to disturb a winning team. All three men were in the same position when the party won the last local government elections in 2016, and the last two general elections in 2016 and 2020. Since there are no challenges, I don’t believe the full delegate complement will be attending,” the source said early last week.
Concerns for Holness
The party insider said several issues are weighing on Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ mind as he makes a decision “one way or the other about the election, whether to call or not to call it”.
“First of all, the prime minister has to decide if there is going to be an election. Some people in the party don’t believe there is one. I am one of them. Reason? There is precedent. The PNP had no local government elections between 1990 and 1998. True, the process was being overhauled in the 1990s and we postponed because of COVID. Notwithstanding, there should have been one last year,” said the source.
Holness, who is the JLP leader, has two options, according to the source: “Call it and decide if the general election will be almost immediately after; or don’t call it and take the outcry that will come, not to mention the PNP’s (People’s National Party’s) legal threat, which will come up in court long after the postponement and possibly after the elections are held. He has to determine if, given the current climate, he can survive the public and PNP backlash.”
Another potential point of bother is the number of councillors who were elected for the first time in 2016 and who will become pensionable in November 2024, after serving for eight years.
Amendments to the Parish Council Act were first tabled by Fitz Jackson in 2001 and it would take another four years before Parliament ratified them in 2005.
Before 1986, councillors were not paid. Last year, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke effected salary increases, moving them from $1.7 million per annum to $5 million as at April 1, 2023 with a further movement to $5.7 million in April this year.
Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner last week, Jackson said, “To become pensionable under the 2005 act, the minimum length of service required for eligibility is three local government terms or eight cumulative years.”
At that time, the elections were held on three-year cycles, and eight years would cross into three terms. Elections are now to be held once every four years. Jackson said if someone serves eight years in one term, they would not be disqualified from receiving their pension.
“That’s why we say it’s whichever one comes first. Someone may serve eight years first. It’s not their fault that elections are not called. So the duration of the terms is not their fault. That’s why a minimum threshold of eight years is used. If you can’t count the eligibility period by terms, you count it by years,” Jackson said.
He waded in on whether the JLP leader should be concerned about calling the elections in February at the risk of some first-time councillors losing and leaving without a pension.
“It is something that should be considered, but how much weight you place on that would be hard to determine, because if you delay the elections to facilitate a few of yours, a pension for the rest of their lives is guaranteed. If the election is called and you lose with no intention of going back, the party may facilitate you getting a lump sum in a contract. I think an individual would be more secured getting a secured monthly pension. So there may be some fallout, [but] the extent would be hard to say,” Jackson reasoned.