Editorial | Fix local government divisions

Moral and ethical considerations notwithstanding, there is little doubt that the People’s National Party (PNP) members of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) were on sound legal grounds this week when they voted one of their own as deputy mayor of Kingston.

However, the controversy that surrounded the elevation of Lorraine Dobson to the post – including the walk-out by Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) members of the councils – should signal to the island’s political parties, and the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), a need for rectifying the issue that was the source of the problem at the KSAMC – and similar ones in other local government councils. That is, the number of electoral divisions in a parliamentary constituency, or however future municipal electoral boundaries are drawn, should be an odd, rather than even number.

In other words, they should apply the same principle to the municipal councils that became urgent for the national parliament after the near tie in the 2007 general election. This should happen before the next local government elections, due in 2028.

POPULAR VOTE

After the February 2024 municipal elections, the PNP and the JLP were each left with 20 seats in the 40-member KSMAC. Under the Local Governance Act when parties tie for seats, the one that wins the popular vote gets the chairmanship of the council, and the person so named, the title of mayor of the capital town of the parish. The mayor effectively controls the corporation. The law, in those circumstances, gives the deputy mayorship, and thereby, the deputy chairmanship of the council, to the opposition group.

This was the situation in which the PNP’s Andrew Swaby was elected Mayor of Kingston and chairman of the KSAMC. The JLP’s Delroy Williams, Mr Swaby’s predecessor, was named deputy mayor.

Under normal circumstances, these positions, regardless of the situation surrounding the election, are for the four-year life of a council. And law bars any challenges to a mayor or deputy mayor for at least a year after their election. A person holding either of these positions could voluntarily give up post, or they might become vacant if the holders die. Nothing in the law says that in those circumstances their successors need to come from their party.

What happened at the KSAMC was that Mr Williams contested last September’s national elections and won the Central Clarendon seat for the JLP. He subsequently resigned from the KSAMC. A member of his party won his KSAMC division.

On Tuesday, when the KSAMC convened to elect Mr Williams’ successor as deputy mayor, the JLP’s members argued that ethics, and the spirit, if not the letter of the law, should cause one of their own to be named to the post. They nominated Winston Ennis, a former deputy mayor, for the position.

Instead, the PNP nominated Ms Dobson, which, even in a tie, she was destined to win, given the chairman’s/mayor’s casting vote. In the midst of the quarrel the JLP councillors walked out.

“They got the mayorship by means of the popular vote, so the deputy went to the JLP,” said JLP member John Myers. “So we are dealing on principle that any one of us from the JLP side could be the deputy, and so we chose Winston Ennis.”

REAL ISSUES

Except that beyond perceived ethics and principle, there are real issues of power and politics in these situations, which Ms Dobson claimed have played out similarly in other municipal councils with tied seats, but with the JLP having the popular vote. She named the parish Clarendon among the examples.

Section 19(4) of the Local Governance Act makes it clear that in the absence or illness of the chairman of the council of a municipal corporation, “the deputy mayor may exercise all the functions vested in the chairperson under the Act and all things done by the deputy mayor shall be valid and effectual in all respects as if they were done by the chairpersons”.

This means that in a tied councils, the has to be circumspect of handing over authority to his/her deputy for fear that they might pursue the opposition’s, rather than the ruling group’s, agenda.

These are legitimate concerns that should be addressed. Indeed, there are at least five municipal councils – KSAMC, St Thomas, St Ann, Clarendon, Westmoreland – in which there is potential for this issue to arise because of the even number of electoral divisions.

Of course, the situation in the parishes doesn’t carry the potential for a constitutional crisis, as might have developed after the 2007 parliamentary election when the JLP won 31 seats, giving it a one-seat majority in the then 60-seat chamber.

That outcome concentrated minds, causing a constitutional amendment that put the maximum number of seats allowable in the legislature to 65. However, under a number of boundary realignments, in keeping with minimum and maximum number of residents who can be in a constituency, there are currently 63 parliamentary seats.

The same rational approach should be applied to the municipal councils to prevent election ties, uncertainties and potential for unnecessary tensions in the aftermath of elections.