Williams demands update on by-election for Morant Bay division

Minority leader in the St Thomas Municipal Corporation (STMC), Hubert Williams, who is the People's National Party's (PNP) councillor for the Whitehorses Division, has renewed his push for a by-election in the now vacant Morant Bay Division in the parish.

The division has been without a parochial councillor since the death of Rohan Bryan on May 1 this year, just over two months after he secured the division for the PNP in the February 26 Local Government Elections.

Williams, a former Morant Bay Mayor, again raised the issue at Thursday's monthly meeting of the STMC, this after doing so at last month's meeting.

According to Williams, the people of Morant Bay cannot be left without a parochial representative to voice their concerns and address their respective issues.

"We need to hear something about the by-election. The people of the Morant Bay Division need representation. It's the most populated division in the parish," Williams argued.

He suggested that the current Morant Bay Mayor, Louis Chin, who is also the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Councillor for the Cedar Valley Division in the parish, "can't manage" both his municipal division and Morant Bay.

The sitting mayor of a municipal corporation normally oversees a division that becomes vacant, ahead of a by-election for new leadership in the division.

"Let me tell you; it's early in the term. The term is too young for these people to be without a councillor, and it's your responsibility (as mayor) to call the by-election based on the law," Williams told Chin.

"You have to do the right thing! There can be no peace without justice!" Williams added.

He stated that the action of Parliament to postpone the by-election in the Morant Bay Division has not been read out to the municipal corporation in the mayor's announcements.

"No democratic society can't operate like that! .... We need to hear something about the by-election man!" Williams demanded.

In July, the Government used its majority in Parliament to vote in favour of an amendment to paragraph 4(5) of the Eighth Schedule of the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), which allowed for an extension of the three-month period in which a by-election must be held in an electoral division of a municipal corporation where a vacancy arises.

The new extension for the by-election is for a time not exceeding 90 days or three months.

As recent as last month, PNP supporters staged a protest for a by-election to be called in Morant Bay.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, while speaking at the nomination of Matthew Samuda as the JLP’s candidate in last month's North East St Ann by-election, reiterated his promise that all by-elections will soon be held in constituencies or parochial divisions without representation.