The Senate on Friday passed legislation to temporarily modify the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) in order to put off local government elections for another year. But Opposition senators categorised the reasons given as akin to a scam and excuse, which doesn’t fit the Government’s position that the country must now live with the novel coronavirus.

Opposition Senator Lambert Brown termed the postponement as a “sticky wicket” situation for the Andrew Holness Administration, which he said is running scared of going to the people at a time when food prices and crime have skyrocketed, indicators that could see the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) trouncing the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) at the parish polls.

He also argued that there is no guarantee that the delay will only be for a year, and that there is mistrust surrounding the issue, as the Government side had given too many different reasons for choosing to put off the elections.

“You can’t sell me that COVID is the reason for putting it off. This is such a sticky wicket for the Government that they [have] conjured COVID [as a reason], but COVID wasn’t a stopper in 2020. We never know how many more times they will seek to postpone the election. We cannot trust their argument, and we are clear that the reason being advanced here is but an excuse…this is almost a scam,” he scoffed.

But Government Senator Matthew Samuda shot back at the assertions, arguing that the Government made decisions around the COVID-19 crisis based on what is situationally appropriate along the way.

He said when the general elections were called, infection numbers were significantly lower, and that the country needed, at the time, the certainty and stability of knowing who would form the next Government.

Furthermore, Samuda said, the PNP had welcomed the calling of the general elections, and that the public should not be misled into believing there was any major pushback from the Opposition when it was announced.

“They didn’t welcome the result, but they welcomed the calling of the elections,” he retorted.

Samuda, a key member of the JLP’s political campaign machinery, said, once again, the prospects for the PNP are not good, and that his party is comfortable with its current political position.

The senator dismissed as a “smokescreen” speculation that the Government was buying time for Portmore to formally obtain city status so that it could secure that council, arguing that the municipality is not a competitive one for the labour party.

In the three-page Bill, Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie gives the impact of COVID-19 on the society and economy and risk of exposure as the reasons for the postponement.

This is the second time the Government has brought a Bill for extension of local elections to Parliament. The first one was passed to postpone the polls, which were constitutionally due November 2020 to February 2022.

The Lower House approved changes to the ROPA on January 25.

Further, Opposition Senator Donna Scott-Mottley insisted, like the rest of her colleagues, that she has no objection to the postponement, but was critical of the argument for it.

She pointed to the Government’s decision to plunge ahead with general elections in September 2020, a year before the polls were constitutionally due, and at a time when the COVID-19 crisis was new to Jamaica and the population had no vaccines for protection.

“There was nobody who could prevail on them that in the interest of protecting the people of Jamaica they should not have held a general election…how can you have done that then, and now, in this environment [of relaxed measures and vaccines], say that you’re attempting to protect the public?” she argued.

“I am battling with the justification which is being proffered for the temporary postponement…it doesn’t fit in with what the Government is saying. You’re sending mixed signals; on the one hand, no lockdowns, get used to it, and on the other hand, you’re bringing a Bill that says we are so worried about the people we can’t have elections,” she added, intimating that the Government’s motive and logic were questionable.