Editorial | Combine referendum, local government poll

Prime Minister Andrew Holness was probably on to something about not holding municipal elections at this time. Having them would not make sense, he told his party conference at the end of last month, given Jamaica’s need to focus on managing the COVID-19 pandemic, including the virus’ likely fourth wave involving the more transmissible Omicron strain.

“It is a miserable time,” he said. “It is not the time for politics.” And he added a tongue-in-cheek political line: the vote would not make a difference since his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would win anyway.

Notwithstanding that he made similar statements previously, Mr Holness has not offered an iron-clad assurance that the elections won’t be held when Parliament’s one-year extension of the mandates of the local authorities expires in February. The political Opposition clearly does not take the PM at his word. They are still operating as though the vote will take place soon. In fact, even his own party appears to be hedging its bets even if its activities are not at full throttle. Mr Holness, after all, is a politician.

For people who may be inclined to insist on the principle of subsidiarity and the right of citizens in communities to democratically, via elections, choose the people who make decisions at the local level, Prime Minister Holness, in additions to the COVID-19 argument, may have a credible case to make for a delay in the local government vote beyond February. It is not the first time that local government elections, as is allowed by law, have been postponed – and for reasons far more spurious than the effects of a pandemic. For his internal critics, who may be chomping at the bit to maul a still-disarrayed Opposition, Mr Holness has the argument of needing time to repair the image of the JLP, and his administration, from the string of corruption scandals they have endured recently. The JLP would perhaps win at the poll but with an even lower voter turnout and less support than it managed in last year’s general election.

EXPENSIVE BUSINESS

Further, holding a national election is an expensive business. Last year, Parliament approved more than $1.8 billion for the financing of the 2020 parliamentary elections. It probably costs less for municipal elections but not substantially so. The demand now would be at a time when the national Treasury is not particularly healthy because of the COVID-19-related recession, from which the economy is still emerging.

Which raises the possibility of extending the value of the spend on the municipal elections if these are further postponed. In other words, getting several bites out of the same cherry.

Mr Holness says he will launch his constitutional reform initiatives in the new year. He, however, has declared his continued commitment to Jamaica removing the Queen as its head of state and having a president who would assume the role of the governor general. There is already political consensus around this non-executive presidency. The only thing left to resolve between the parties – unless Mr Holness has had a monumental shift in his philosophical position on this element of the Constitution – is the procedure by which legislators would choose the president.

Removing the deeply entrenched constitutional clause that establishes the Queen as Jamaica’s head of state would require not only two-thirds support in either House of Parliament, but the bill would have to be laid on the table of the House of Representatives for three months before its debate and for another three months after the debate before it is voted on. After passage by the Senate, there would have to be a wait of at least two months and up to six before the law is subject to a referendum for approval or rejection by voters. If that process began early in 2022, and was worked at diligently, it would be towards the end of the year before a referendum could be contemplated. More likely, a consensus-driven process would run well into 2023.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

Since there is already broad agreement on Jamaica becoming a republic, we assume that Mr Holness would not be opposed to proceeding with this aspect of constitutional reform rather than waiting to sort through a range of other issues, which might be mired in years of recriminatory debate. Similarly, we see nothing controversial with Jamaica repatriating its Constitution, making it an act of Parliament, rather than an Order in Council, an offering from the Queen, signed by a British civil servant in 1962.

With both of these matters requiring the endorsement of voters in a referendum, the Government might consider having the plebiscite at the same time that Jamaicans vote for their municipal authorities. The idea of multiple votes on the same day is not totally alien to Jamaicans. Already, the people of Portmore, home to the island’s largest concentration of residents outside of Kingston and St Andrew, vote on the same day for their directly elected mayor and for the members of their city municipality, including those who sit in the St Catherine Municipal Corporation.

In the meantime, the Government, the municipal authorities themselves, and civic society groups could use time until the local government elections are held to assess how the local government system has worked since a 2016 law that set a new basis for their operation.