PRIME Minister Andrew Holness, after being roundly chastised by several interests about the manner in which his administration has gone about handling by-elections for vacant seats, on Wednesday signalled that those “pending” will “come shortly”.

Addressing a crowd of supporters in St Ann’s Bay shortly after Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for North East St Ann Matthew Samuda was nominated to fill the vacancy left by the former standard-bearer Marsha Smith, Holness said, “I want to assure the country, I have heard some concerns being raised about constituencies that have been without representatives. I, too, hold that concern.

“I, too, share the perspective that as quickly as possible, to maintain the stability of the government, elections ought to be called in those constituencies; it is only the case that Matthew’s election is the first to be called, but all others will be called and in short order. So, what does that say to you? Get ready for all the other by-elections to come,” Holness, who had earlier told the Jamaica Observer he did not wish to comment on the issue, told the gathering.

Electoral watchdog Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) was the latest to express dissatisfaction with the manner in which prime ministers have mishandled their power to set the dates for parliamentary and local government by-elections. The group suggested an amendment in the law to prevent what it described as an “unprincipled manipulation” of the process.

“There is no constitutional principle or valid grounds for conferring on the prime minister an uncontrolled discretion to delay the filling of such vacancies for indefinite periods,” the voluntary civic organisation said in a news release on Monday.

“CAFFE considers that the holding of by-elections created by vacancies that may arise among the elected Members of Parliament and municipal corporations should be held within a prescribed period from the time the vacancy arises, and that the constitution should be amended, if necessary, to give effect to this,” the group said, pointing to vacancies in Trelawny Southern and the Morant Bay Division in St Thomas Municipal Corporation. It said no mention was made of them when Holness announced the St Ann North Eastern by-election.

“This is a clear manipulation of the electoral process in the interests of the governing party rather than upholding the principles of democracy,” CAFFE said.

Last Wednesday, a day after Marsha Smith resigned as Member of Parliament for St Ann North Eastern, Prime Minister Andrew Holness used a post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House to announce that Matthew Samuda had resigned from the Upper House and the Cabinet — in which he served as minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

Samuda’s resignation, which Holness said was submitted the Monday, paved the way for him to contest the by-election for a seat in the Lower House. The vote is set for September 30 following the nomination on Wednesday.

On the heels of that announcement, Opposition Leader Mark Golding said his People’s National Party (PNP) is currently preparing for the next general election to enable Jamaicans to vote in a new government, and would not be contesting by-elections at this late stage in the run-up to the general election due in September 2025.

“The People’s National Party remains steadfast in our mission to protect and strengthen Jamaica’s democracy. We will not enter any process that seeks to undermine the very principles we hold dearly. Instead, we will focus on ensuring that every Jamaican has a voice and that every constituency is treated with the fairness and respect it deserves,” Golding said at the time.

Last Wednesday, Holness, in response to a question from journalists, said by-elections for the two seats in question, as well as in St Andrew North Western which will become vacant when Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke takes up his new post at International Monetary Fund in October, will be held “within months”.

On Wednesday, the JLP’s Samuda, David “Five Pound” Anderson — a former PNP caretaker who fielded himself as an independent candidate — and the United Independent’s Congress Chase Neil were nominated as candidates in what Director of Elections Glasspole Brown described as a fairly easy process.

“Three candidates were duly nominated to contest the elections on September 30. The day went well; there was no incident. Now that we have had the nominees, we start preparing the ballots, and fine-tuning our polling station locations. We have 27 polling station locations in this constituency and 146 polling divisions. We will be doing a refresher course for our staff, so we should be ready to open polls at 7:00 am on the 30th. For this election it’s approximately 40,346 registered electors,” the EOJ head said.

In the meantime, he said the EOJ will also be ready for the other by-elections in the wings.

“We anticipate based on what we do. We have to anticipate that the prime minister might make a call anytime. Therefore, if called, the EOJ will be ready and the good thing about these by-elections is that they are small. It doesn’t take a lot for us to prepare. The Trelawny South, whenever it is called we are ready, similar to the Morant Bay Division whenever it is called we will be ready,” said Brown.

In the meantime, all three candidates told members of the media that they were ready to respond to the needs of the constituency.

“We really need a change. That’s my purpose, that’s my aim to do it to the best of my ability. One of the things the world lacks is for people who cannot be bought or sold, and I think that’s my purpose, that’s what I’m here for. The state of the community, a lot of the facilities are really deplorable. The children have no place to play and it starts with the children. That’s why I think we have the problems we do,” said Anderson, who was the first to be nominated.

“Water and electricity, in modern days, are basic things yet still we see developments going on elsewhere and water pipes being laid from Ochio Rios right back to Priory and yet still we bypass the communities. We need to wake up,” the St Ann native said.

Samuda, who was the second to be nominated, said, “Today is about the new phase of the journey of the development of North East St Ann and we look forward to the next phase — the next two and a half weeks when we get to the by-elections. We expect to be victorious and I am eager to get started with the work.”

He, in the meantime, dismissed the PNP’s insistence that it was not contesting the by-elections as a mere ploy, noting Anderson’s presence.

“The PNP is very much running; the independent candidate is the former caretaker for St Ann’s Bay. This is the usual theatrics we expect from the Opposition, but today is not about that,” Samuda said.

And the UIC’s Chase Neil said he decided to throw his hat in the ring to “give the people of North East St Ann a voice”.

Neil, who said he was not necessarily new to the area, despite being a St Mary native, said, “I actually know a lot of people here; I’ve done business in St Ann and I’ve represented St Ann outside of politics. I have a lot of ties in St Ann.”