Prime Minister Andrew Holness is dispelling speculation that local government elections will be held soon.

Addressing the opening of the new Olympic Gardens Police Station Wednesday morning (June 30), Holness said the local government elections, which were due earlier this year, will be tied to the vaccination process of COVID-19.

“I have been seeing reports in the press from various quarters that in anticipation of a local government election, the Government has somehow re-crafted the (COVID-19) protocols. Nonsense,” the prime minister said.

“There will be no local government election held this year. Let me make it absolutely clear to everyone and certainly there will be no local government election held until I am satisfied that Jamaica is on the right trajectory for vaccination.”

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)-led Government of Jamaica will, has relaxed measures that have been put in place to stem the spread of the COVID-19, effective tomorrow (July 1).

Holness had earliert this month announced the new measures in Parliament, which include shorter curfew hours and the reopening of places of entertainment.

The People’s National Party’s (PNP) Senator Peter Bunting, opposition spokesman on justice, had theorised that the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions by the Holness administration was a sign that the local government elections were imminent. He warned PNP supporters, during a divisional conference in Mandeville, to be ready.

On Wednesday, while not naming the PNP, Holness took jabs at his opponents as he said that in anticipation of an election they have been breaking the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) by electioneering.

“All those who are looking for an excuse to go on mobilisation and tours and break the DRMA regulations, because some of what I am seeing, I am wondering how it is that the Disaster Risk Management Act, which is policed by ODPEM is not enforced on those, who would seek, under the guise of some false mobilisation, to break the protocols,” Holness stated.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding, the president of the PNP, has been touring several communities in recent weeks.

EASING OF RESTRICTIONS NOT JUST ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT

Meanwhile, according to Holness, the new measures were efforts of the government to ease the hardships being faced by citizens. He said the speculation that it was designed for the entertainment sector is not true.

“Narratives are being created that the Government re-crafted the infection, prevention and control measures under the DRMA to facilitate entertainment. That is not quite actually the case,” Holness said.

“The Government has always made it clear that we have had to balance lives and livelihoods and that we have to be sensitive and careful that the measures that we put in place, don’t become oppressive in themselves, such that people start to calculate their own risks and break the DRMA measures.

“That we have to, not just look at one sector of the society, but at all sectors and to be clear, yes, entertainment has suffered. They have suffered over a year, but so too have many other businesses,” he continued.

Holness said that the Government was always assessing the situation and would provide relief to citizens as soon as there is an opportunity.