By-election breach

CITIZENS Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) has joined calls for municipal corporations to hold four overdue by-elections, warning that the prolonged vacancies are leaving constituents without representation and undermining democratic accountability. Speaking at a Jamaica Observer Press Club at CAFFE’s New Kingston offices last Thursday, former Chairman Dr Lloyd Barnett described the municipalities’ failure to fill the vacancies as a disregard of the law. “They have completely ignored the law… There are four vacancies now. That’s a great concern to CAFFE,” Barnett argued. CAFFE is an internationally acclaimed independent organisation that monitors voting locally and, in recent years, across the region. Its observers assess whether democratic principles are upheld, including ballot secrecy and freedom from intimidation. The organisation has observed multiple elections since its establishment in 1997. Barnett’s call for action follows a warning issued by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) in March 2026 — when it wrote to Morant Bay Mayor Louis Chin, Savanna-la-Mar Mayor Danree Delancy, and Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby — highlighting their responsibility to fill vacancies for councillors within the stipulated time period. The commission reminded mayors that, in accordance with the Representation of the People Act, a by-election is to be held within approximately three months of the vacancy in an electoral division being recorded in the minutes of a municipal corporation. The vacancies arose after three sitting councillors — Yvonne Rosemarie Shaw, Dennis Gordon, and Delroy Williams — were elected Members of Parliament in the September 3, 2025 General Election, while Councillor Patrick Forrester (People’s National Party, Petersfield Division) in Westmoreland died in a motor vehicle crash on September 17 last year. Shaw was the People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Morant Bay Division in St Thomas; while Gordon, the PNP represetnative for Maxfield Park Division, and the Jamaica Labour Party’s Williams, a former Kingston mayor, represented the Seivwright Gardens Division, both in the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC). At the time, Mayor Swaby acknowledged the commission’s notice and had indicated that conversations would begin in short order to stage by-elections in the Maxfield Park and Seivwright Gardens divisions, which were represented by the People’s National Party’s Gordon and the Jamaica Labour Party’s Williams, respectively. As Swaby delivered his statements and announcements during a monthly KSAMC meeting, he explained that the election process was delayed due to the impact of last October’s Hurricane Melissa. According to him, conducting polls in the immediate aftermath of the Category 5 storm, which devastated Jamaica’s south- and north-western parishes, would have been distasteful. “Councillors will recall that the by-elections to fill these vacancies were due by mid-December 2025. However, in the aftermath of the significant destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa on October 28, 2025, I wrote the Honourable Desmond McKenzie, [minister of local government], seeking an extension of the time within which the KSAMC could complete these by-elections. “While the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew were spared the most severe direct impact, the entire country was actively involved in helping persons affected to put their lives back in order. I strongly believe it would have been highly insensitive to engage the residents in an election at that time,” said the mayor. Mayors Chin and Delancy have not made any public comments on the matter. Nearly a year since Hurricane Melissa, and six months since the ECJ’s written notice, all four vacancies remain unoccupied, leaving residents unrepresented. “That, in fact, illustrates the importance of continuous vigilance. Because here is an important part of your democracy and you have people not being represented over here because the Government and the authorities failed to act,” Barnett said, urging the municipalities to fill the vacancies as soon as possible.