Editorial | Twin national/KSAMC vote sensible

Mayor Andrew Swaby’s suggestion that the three by-elections for vacant divisions in the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) be held at the same time as the imminent vote for the national government is quite sensible and should be agreed to.

While casting multiple ballots in the same election would be new to KSAMC voters, it is not new to Jamaica, so the process is not unfamiliar to the electoral authorities. Moreover, neither of the two big parties – the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) – would lose anything if the polls happened together, and taxpayers would save money.

At the same time, Mr Swaby’s proposal is an opportunity for Jamaica not only to rekindle the debate over a fixed-date general election, but also to adjust the law so that voting for municipal councils coincides with election for the national parliament. It is a suggestion that this newspaper has made before.

Mr Swaby, the chairman of the KSAMC (which gives him the title of mayor of Kingston), is a member of the PNP, which is in opposition nationally. It, however, gained control of the KSAMC after the 2024 local government elections because it won the popular vote in the municipality, although it tied with the JLP on the number of seats – 20 each.

LOST

Since then, the JLP has lost three councillors. Two members died and one resigned to contest a by-election to the national parliament.

“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,” Mr Swaby told The Gleaner. The general election is constitutionally due by September.

The KSAMC seats have been vacant for nearly half a year, and should have already been filled if the spirit and the letter of the law governing municipal by-elections had been scrupulously observed.

Under the Local Governance Act, a vacancy is observed.

For example, the section of the Representation of the People Act regarding government municipal elections requires that a by-election to fill a seat should be held within three months after that 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”.

NOT CLEAR

It is not clear whether these required notices have been appropriately filed.

Fundamentally, however, the outcomes of the by-election would change the balance of power in the KSAMC.

If the JLP retained the seats, the status quo would remain. Should the PNP win the seats, it would still control the council that it already runs, albeit with a bit more cushion.

Regarding voting for multiple candidates in a single election, residents in the municipality of Portmore, St Catherine already do so. They cast ballots separately for their directly elected mayor, while also voting for the members of the council of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation (SCMC). The elected members of the SCMC whose divisions fall within Portmore sit separately as the Portmore Municipal Council.

The point is, like in many countries, some voters in Jamaica cast more than a single ballot in the same election. It is not complicated, or beyond the voters of the KSAMC.