August election now unlikely - House votes to extend SoE until September 3

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has given the clearest indication that a general election may not be called before the start of the new school term.

Holness, who has previously said that an election would not be called while sections of the island are under a state of emergency, yesterday moved three resolutions in the Parliament for the extreme security measures to be extended until September 3, the anniversary of the 2007 general elections.

Holness had proposed for the measures to be in place until October 24 but Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips said there was danger in having a state of emergency in effect during the election period.

Under Jamaican law, the election period is the last six months in the term of an administration.

Holness, whose government would be seeking a second term in the next general elections due by February, has said that his focus is on securing economic stability in the island that has suffered significant economic fallout due to COVID-19.

Serious crime

He told parliamentarians yesterday that the states of emergency have been critical in helping to reduce serious crime on the island.

The Kingston East, West and South police divisions as well as the parishes of Clarendon, St Catherine, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland are under states of emergencies.

Holness said that all areas have shown reductions in murders and shootings. "We are flattening the crime curve in Jamaica," he said.

The prime minister said that while it is not his intentions to have an election with states of emergency in place, the crime containment measures are not something he is prepared to take off the table.

Meanwhile, a senior member of the Holness administration yesterday made it clear that he was in election mood.

"We are ready to put on our jogging shoes," Desmond McKenzie, the local government minister, said during his contribution to the sectoral debate.

He said that the Holness government has given Jamaicans a "taste" of prosperity and has made a case for a second term.

"We are fit, eager to go, because we want to go out there and take the case to the people and let the people decide. We are going out there on a platform of performance, not gimmicks, not mischief ... We are ready to roll up our shirt sleeves, travel from village to city, land or sea, whatever means it takes," McKenzie, a Jamaica Labour Party deputy leader, said.