Tampering With The Electoral Process Places Jamaica Closer To Being A Failed State.…

Local Government Elections were con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due in Jamaica yes­ter­day June 30^th.…
Nevertheless there were no elec­tions held. Local Government elec­tions in Jamaica are for the elec­tions of Parish Councillors, or more appro­pri­ate­ly (rep­re­sen­ta­tives of cer­tain blocks with­in a Parish. These Parish Councillors tra­di­tion­al­ly live right there in the com­mu­ni­ties and were tra­di­tion­al­ly more acces­si­ble to cit­i­zens than the more elevated[sic] Members of Parliament.

In 2010 the then Jamaica Labor Party Government post­poned Local Government Elections because of the tur­moil in the Country and the lim­it­ed State of Public Emergency sur­round­ing attempts to cap­ture and extra­dite Christopher )Duddus) Coke who was want­ed by the United States Government to face charges.
On the occa­sion of that delay the People’s National Party which refused to grant the Security Forces time to go after crim­i­nals, angri­ly crit­i­cized the Government for delay­ing the elections.
As is the norm for the PNP , the Party was con­cerned about noth­ing but it’s Cultist obses­sion to hold and con­sol­i­date state pow­er at every level.

Yesterday the Government ush­ered two Bills through the House of Representatives post­pon­ing local gov­ern­ment elec­tions by 18 months. This means Local Government Elections will not be held until December 29^th 2016.…
What could be the rea­son for the Government to so bla­tant­ly tam­per with the process with such glar­ing lack of respect or due care for the opin­ions of voters?

Minister of Local Government and Community Development Noël Arscott insist­ed that the rea­sons for the post­pone­ment were: (1) the need to “imple­ment ele­ments of the Local Government Reform pro­gramme”; and (2) the need to “com­plete the revi­sion of elec­toral bound­aries in the Portmore Municipality”.

I am patent­ly aware that this is not new it has been done before by both Parties.
With that said this amounts to bla­tant manip­u­la­tion of the process because polls show they will lose, and lose bad­ly were elec­tions to be called today. Some polls are report­ed to have the JLP ahead by twen­ty per­cent­age points. This despite the fact that the JLP con­tin­ue to give vot­ers a raft of rea­sons not to vote for the par­ty, through it per­pet­u­al inter­nal squabbles.
No Nation can assume to take on the title “Democratic” when the very process of democ­ra­cy can be so eas­i­ly manip­u­lat­ed and distorted.
The Administration of Portia Simpson Miller was nev­er any­thing beyond a two-bit-Banana-Republic as far as it’s integri­ty and poten­tial is concerned.
Blatantly and thug­gish­ly tam­per­ing with the process places the Kleptomaniac Régime per­ilous­ly close to Dictatorial status.
And reduces our Country that much clos­er to becom­ing a failed state.