A section of Portmore, St Catherine.
February 12, 2025
Portmore battle
Gov’t passes Bill making municipality Jamaica’s 15th parish; Opposition claims gerrymandering, heading to court
The Government used its majority in the Lower House on Tuesday to pass a Bill making Portmore Jamaica’s 15th parish after an acrimonious debate during which the Opposition repeated its threat to go to court over what it charged are attempts at gerrymandering by the Administration.
The passing of the Counties and Parishes Amendment Act 2025, if approved by the Senate, will also end the direct election of the mayor of Portmore, a move that the Opposition sees as an attempt by the Government to overturn the will of the people of the municipality.
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It will also be the first time in post-colonial Jamaica and in nearly 160 years that a new parish is being created.
At the end of the often fiery debate of the Bill piloted by Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie during which both sides accused the other of hypocrisy, a divide vote was taken. It went 28 to 10 in favour of the Government and saw the Opposition walking out, led by Opposition Leader Mark Golding.
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The Bill was eventually passed with one amendment.
In warning of court action, Fitz Jackson, the People’s National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament for St Catherine Southern, also served notice that a future PNP Government will repeal and replace any legislation establishing Portmore as a parish.
“This Bill would have been most appropriately entitled The Gerrymandering of Political Boundaries Bill of 2025. Such a Bill is for the resurrection of political tribalism in Jamaica,” Jackson stated.
He added that the Bill contained a “slew of deception”, while pointing to Clause 8 which repeals the Charter of the Municipality of Portmore.
He said repealing the charter was akin to “ripping apart from the people of Portmore… their right to elect their own mayor. That is what is provided for in the charter”.
Jackson, who has been one of the more strident opponents of the Bill, was interrupted on at least three occasions by McKenzie, including when he accused the Government of gerrymandering in an attempt to create political dominance in the St Catherine Municipal Corporation by cutting the PNP strongholds of Grange Lane, Lakes Pen, Lime Tree Grove, and Quarry Hill from the Portmore parish boundaries.
Despite McKenzie’s objections, Jackson insisted that the sole purpose of the Bill was to create political advantage. He referenced a newspaper article which quoted former Government Minister Everald Warmington stating that the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) now had the boundary it wanted all along.
“When we take off Portmore from St Catherine it’s a different ball game,” Warmington had said, indicating that in the future it will become nigh impossible for the PNP to again win the St Catherine Municipal Corporation.
According to Jackson, having lost the St Catherine Municipal Corporation in the February 2024 Local Government Elections, the Government has decided to use its majority in the Parliament to overturn the will of the people.
“This is a cruel act, this is a wicked act, this Bill is not about Portmore, it’s about the democracy of this country. They have started along a slippery slope to get what they want by circumventing the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ),” Jackson said.
He pointed out that the ECJ’s predecessor, the Electoral Advisory Committee, established out of bipartisan consensus in 1979, clearly sets out that no incumbent Government should determine constituency boundaries.
“This Act is to undo the result of the 2024 Local Government Election because if this Bill is to be brought into force today, it would terminate the office of the directly-elected mayor of Portmore. In so doing, they’re ending the election results of last year by their parliamentary majority,” Jackson pointed out.
He declared the Bill the most anti-democratic the country has seen in 44 years.
“It is what, in 2025, is now parliamentary tyranny, power drunkenness by their majority over there,” he said.
The warnings, pleadings and threats by the Opposition fell on deaf ears as speaker after speaker on the Government side accused the Opposition of hypocrisy while insisting that parish status will redound to the benefit of Portmore’s residents.
This led to Jackson’s threat.
“We will meet the Government in the courts,” he said. “And, on behalf of the Opposition, I’m serving notice that when the People’s National Party forms the next Government we will repeal this Act and we will allow the people of Portmore to determine their destiny, their form of government, because the will of the people must always prevail.”
Opposition Leader Golding, in his contribution to the debate, said: “This is a deplorable travesty and an aberration for those democratic rights of the people of Portmore to be removed without their consent or approval by this Government abusing its parliamentary majority.”
He pointed out that both the mayors of Portmore and St Catherine were elected, one directly (Portmore), a demonstration of the will of the people.
“This Bill will destroy the expressed will of the people,” Golding said. He stressed that the effect of the legislation is the removal of the directly-elected mayor of Portmore and a much reduced parish of St Catherine suddenly having a majority of JLP councillors so they can remove the currently elected mayor and install one of their own.
Both McKenzie and Golding shouted each other down, with both accusing each other of deceiving the people when Golding insisted that the Bill had the effect of changing constituency boundaries, specifically St Catherine East Central, held by the JLP’s Alando Terrelonge, and St Catherine Southern.
Golding highlighted that a major realigning of constituency boundaries will be required as the communities left out of Portmore are effectively marooned with no political representation. He declared the move by the Government a “backward and retrograde step”.
Golding said the PNP will do whatever it has to in its lawful power to resist the implementation of the new law making Portmore a parish.
Meanwhile, in piloting the Bill, McKenzie said, “This is a day of tremendous historical significance. This is the day when we as lawmakers… begin the process of transforming the city municipality of Portmore into the parish of Portmore and the 15th parish”.
He insisted it was not merely adding to the count of parishes and also noted that it’s the first time in post-colonial Jamaica that a new parish was being created.
The last time a parish was created was on May 1,1867 when the count was reduced from 22 to 14.
“Nearly 158 years later we are beginning the process of giving formal recognition and further empowerment to the people of the largest community in the Caribbean,” said McKenzie. He said it would provide the civic and practical development opportunities that will allow Portmore to achieve this outstanding milestone and a fulfilment of a commitment made to the people of Portmore by the JLP.
