THE almost one-year-old Jamaica Unity Alliance (JUA) is to step up its call for a radical reform of the constitution that would separate the executive and legislative arms of Government during a conference in St Andrew today.

According to JUA President Howard McDonald, the alliance is adamant that any reform of the constitution, which ditches the Westminster system, must include the creation of the office of an executive president as the head of Government.

“We want a president elected by the people, not some parliamentarians selecting somebody from their party to lead the country,” said McDonald as he charged that the changes now proposed by the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) are not enough.

The CRC has proposed a ceremonial president to replace the governor general with the prime minister remaining in the role of the head of Government.

But McDonald said JUA wants the reform to put things in place to separate the executive arm of the Government from the parliamentarians.

“Members of Parliament should not be in the Cabinet, it is a conflict of interest because now they are beholden to one person — the prime minister. Parliamentarians should do the work they are elected to do, which is representing the people,” said McDonald.

The alliance was officially launched earlier this year with the National Democratic Movement (NDM), Jamaica Patriotic Movement, Marcus Garvey People’s Political Party, Up Jamaica, and the trade union Tancour United Independent Congress as its founding members.

The NDM has since walked away from the JUA, but McDonald says that is not an indication that the alliance has weakened.

“We are not always going to agree…so if we lose one, we are still strong, and the NDM might return because [NDM President] Peter [Townsend] and I still speak and, as a matter of fact, he has told me that he will be coming to the conference,” said McDonald.

He told the Jamaica Observer that today’s conference, which will be held at the University of Technology, Jamaica campus at Papine, St Andrew starting at 3:00 pm, will see the JUA offering Jamaicans a vision for a major overhaul of the political system.

“For the last 80 years the two-party system has not delivered to the Jamaican people in general. We have these two parties — JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) and PNP (People’s National Party) — which define us in colour, green and orange, and divide us as a people.

“So we are saying we need to unite Jamaica so that Jamaicans can benefit similar to how the politicians are benefiting. What we are trying to do is inform and educate the people that they have other options,” said McDonald.

Pointing out that fewer than 40 per cent of electors cast their ballots in the 2020 General Election, McDonald argued that this shows that even though the winning party received a mandate to govern the country, it did not get a mandate from the majority of Jamaicans, “Because the Jamaican people have decided that it is not going to get any better; and we need to have changes that are going to benefit the ordinary Jamaican. That is why we have put together this conference to let the people know that they have other options and they need to be a part of the change.”

McDonald said while it is unlikely that the JUA will field candidates in the next general election, constitutionally due by September 2025, this has not been fully ruled out.

“If we have enough people who we can motivate to participate in the upcoming election, there is a possibility that we might do something. If the people think that we can be the change that they need, we will contest the thing.

“Right now we have members of the alliance who might contest the election because we allow individual groups to not lose their identity, so if they want to go out there and compete, we are going to support them,” said McDonald.

“At this point we are not saying we are going to contest, but we might possibly do it if we get some momentum behind us, and it depends on how soon the election is called, and that is why we have an issue and have called for a fixed election date. They can’t go willy-nilly and choose a date that suits them because they look good in the polls,” added McDonald.

The JUA’s push for constitutional reform revives memories of the launch of the NDM in October 1995 at Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.

Formed by Bobby Marsh and disgruntled Labourite Brascoe Lee, who then invited former JLP Chairman Bruce Golding to serves as the first president, the NDM advocated fundamental changes to Jamaica’s political system.

The party, which attracted a slew of well-known Jamaicans in politics and academia, campaigned on 12 core values — sovereignty of citizens; strict separation of powers; term limits; fixed election date; dismantling political garrisons; establishing constituency assemblies; securing the safety of the people and an efficient justice system; taking politics out of the police force; implementation of an energy policy to maximise solar power; establishing real local government (not controlled by central government); transparency for funding of political parties; and greater public participation on decisions on sensitive national issues.

The NDM contested the 1997 General Election but failed to win a seat and eventually faded as a political force.