Natalie Neita-Garvey, opposition spokesperson on local government, says the People’s National Party (PNP) will be amending the laws to allow for the direct election of mayors across all municipalities on the island, if re-elected to government.

Garvey made the disclosure during the first round of the Local Government Debate on Thursday (February 15), hosted by the Jamaica Debates Commission. The discourse touched on local government policy and how it affects citizens.

“It is clear that team PNP and the government then in 2001, when we embarked on the consultations with the people of Portmore and it was through their determination along with the government at the day, that there should be a directly elected mayor. We believe in directly elected mayors and if we had not lost in 2007, that process would have continued. The truth is at the end of the day, that is something that we are going to be continuing because we understand the importance of giving the citizens their voice and being able to directly elect their own mayor to serve their municipalities,” she noted.

Portmore is the first and only municipality in Jamaica where the mayor is directly elected by the people.

“In addition, we want to make it unequivocally clear that citizens participation is important to local governance and that statistics that you mention would suggest people and the citizens of this country do not engage with the process. This administration, the JLP [Jamaica Labour Party], has single-handedly and intentionally gutted citizen participation from the local government process,” said Allan Bernard, PNP councillor-candidate for Montego Bay North East.

He further argued that the national parish committees, Community Development Corporation (CDC) and Social Development Commission (SDC) have been emasculated by political interference.

“A PNP administration is ready to make those changes, is ready for citizens engagement, we are the party that has been at the forefront of citizens engagement in the local government process, this has always been the case,” Bernard added.

Venesha Phillips, councillor for the Papine Division, who recently transitioned to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), in her rebuttal said the JLP is a strong believer in citizen engagement, performance and communication.

“The model in Portmore does not work, as we said we are not aversed but we, of course, intend to engage with the people, follow up with the action and representative of the views of the people unlike our friends of the PNP. It is not what we believe, but what you believe is in their best interest,” she retorted.

The second round of debates is set for February 17 and will focus on local government and its effectiveness.