NOT ENOUGH TIME

The Government’s push to grant Portmore parish status, which could move a step closer to becoming law at today’s sitting of the House of Representatives, will not affect the voters’ list to be produced by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) by May 30, according to Orrette Fisher.

Additionally, the process to make Portmore a parish cannot be completed before the next general election is due in September, as legal requirements from the relevant authorities will not be met.

This position was outlined by the former director of elections in an interview with The Gleaner on Monday.

“In relation to parish status and the current list, there is nothing that can change or will change. So the list will be printed in May, and nothing is going to happen with respect to polling division changes or any electoral changes for that matter,” Fisher said.

Even if the Lower House passes the bill on Tuesday, he explained, “moving boundaries is a much more complex undertaking and it will have to be gazetted before it would take effect”.

Continuing, he said: “If an election were to be called, then in my mind, it would be on the current list, which means nothing will change. Individuals will vote in the same space they voted in the last elections, and new electors would be placed in polling divisions based on their addresses. So basically things are okay, because I don’t think that the fieldwork that would be required to make any changes and to do the movements, and for it to be gazetted and all that would take place within that that that time frame.”

Fisher, who served at the country’s elections chief for a decade between 2008 and 2018 and who oversaw the 2011 and 2016 general elections, emphasised that it was impossible for the necessary legal and procedural steps to be completed before the September 3, the deadline for the next general election.

He told The Gleaner that the necessary fieldwork following the declaration of parish status could not be rushed, noting that during his time at the EOJ, a lot of work was done on the issue, with him doing “a lot of research on it”.

RIDDLED WITH PROBLEMS

According to him, there was a push to map parish boundaries using GIS technology, but that process ran into several problems.

“A report was sent to Parliament, but nothing was done. But the current situation depends on where the boundaries are drawn because of what the Constitution says and what has become custom. The Parliament usually allows the Electoral Commission to do certain things, and that include the drawing of boundaries. For the political administration to go ahead and draw the boundaries, that would be a break from what has been practised for years,” he stated.

The Electoral Commission of Jamaica has still not responded to Gleaner queries on the issue made more than a year ago, although it acknowledged receipt of the questions.

Opposition legislator Fitz Jackson, whose St Catherine Southern constituency includes sections of the current Portmore municipality, has raised several concerns about the planned change in designation and the proposed boundaries. He said a People’s National Party administration would reverse any such move, citing a lack of adequate consultation with or approval from Portmore residents.

Looking ahead, Fisher stressed that attention should be focused on where the parish borders are drawn to ensure there is no overlapping with constituency boundaries. He explained that when constituency boundaries are altered, returning officers, along with GIS technology, must go on the ground to map out the changes.

“In that case, you would know which electors are affected and how to accommodate them. That is when you would make the necessary adjustments, which would then have an effect on the electoral divisions,” he explained.

Section 2(1) of the Second Schedule of the Constitution of Jamaica says: “The boundary of a constituency shall not cross the boundary of a parish as delimited by the Counties and Parishes Act, or by any law amending or replacing that law.”

“Until then, nothing is going to happen to the current voters’ list ... based on what is supposed to be done. ... We don’t have time for what needs to be done, and it would have had to be started already for everything to be completed to impact the voters. And if the fieldwork has not started and for it to be done and gazetted, it means this election will not be affected and, therefore, if they produce a new voters’ list in May and the election is called by September, it is the May voters’ list that will be used,” Fisher stated.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com