MANCHESTER, Jamaica— Police were called to quell tensions after chaos erupted during Friday morning’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association of Local Government Authorities of Jamaica (ALGA-J) abruptly adjourning the event in Mandeville.

The contention reportedly stemmed from the agenda of the meeting at the Golf View Hotel and how it proceeded.

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During the chaos, ALGA-J president Winston Maragh’s left hand was bruised after a microphone was forcefully taken from him.

Maragh, a member of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and former Mayor of May Pen, accused members of the People’s National Party (PNP) of stirring up trouble during the meeting when he decided to move to ALGA-J’s election on the agenda.

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“However, our PNP members thought to themselves that they would have been outvoted at that time and so they decided to bring the meeting into chaos,” he claimed.

“One of the councillors pulled the microphone from my hand and in the process of doing so my hand was bruised and cut,” he added.

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He said sometime after police turned up to the meeting and it was later adjourned.

However, an aspirant for the presidency of the association Councillor Scean Barnswell (People’s National Party, Hayes division) accused Maragh of breaching ALGA-J’s constitution.

“The president moved for a suspension of the standing order to move straight into the election and we said ‘president you can’t move into an election before you deal with these important matters, which is your report, but more so the financial statement report. In the ALGA constitution class six under business of meeting, it states that at least 21 days prior to the date of a fixed AGM each authority shall be forwarded by the secretary, a resolution or letters as it relates to what should be on the agenda,” said Barnswell.

“We got the notices, but it went on further to say that the copy of the agenda shall be sent to each council at least five days before the meeting. I saw the agenda just this morning (Friday) and as a result, we are saying to the [president] you have breached the constitution of ALGA-J and we are asking for us to have the discussion and deal with it and he refused. The members said we cannot proceed,” he added.

— Kasey Williams

Councillor Scean Barnswell. Contributed Photo.

Winston Maragh’s left hand was bruised after a microphone was forcefully taken from him. Contributed Photo.