DIRECTOR of Elections Glasspole Brown on Wednesday made it clear that it will take some time for electoral boundaries to be sorted in the new parish of Portmore and St Catherine.

According to Brown, the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), of which he is a member, is unable to give a timeline as to when the boundaries for the country’s 15th parish and the realigned St Catherine will be in place.

Addressing Parliament’s Constituency Boundaries Committee, Brown indicated that the process for the new constituencies is detailed and involved.

“The [committee] members would agree that it’s a tremendous amount of work, and we [the ECJ] have just started doing our work. We have not yet agreed upon the timeline. Certainly when we come back [before the Boundaries Committee] on the 31st of May we will be able to provide you with a more definite timeline when the process will be completed,” Brown offered.

He had earlier detailed the work that is involved, while explaining that the changes to constituency boundaries is guided by Section 67 of the constitution.

Brown told the committee that the ECJ has already established an interface between it and the Boundaries Committee, having received instructions from the committee.

In turn, the ECJ has written to the Ministry of Local Government asking to be furnished with the new boundaries for the redefined St Catherine parish.

He said relevant technology is already being applied and the fieldwork is about to commence regarding the new boundaries which will lead to the creation of relevant maps.

“The ECJ guideline — as was agreed by the commission… should be for boundary alignment — will guide the way we proceed going forward,” said Brown.

The director of elections explained that the key step involves the establishment of a formal procedure for reaching and recording agreements along with the establishment of the Parish Boundary Forum (PBF). The PBF will be chaired by a senior returning officer from the parish who he will be appointed by him.

“The PBF, according to the guidelines, will be supported by a Parish Boundary Advisory Committee (PBAC) which will also be chaired by a senior returning officer from the parish and similarly appointed by the director of elections,” said Brown.

The ECJ will provide the necessary guidance and GIS technology support as well as electronic and paper mapping throughout the process.

According to Brown, the following will also be undertaken:

* PBF to convene shortly based on the agreed structure; and

* PBAC tasked to begin to conduct field work to realign the constituency boundaries, reconfigure the electoral divisions and also write the constituency and polling division (PD) descriptions

Brown explained that the fieldwork will have two primary objectives:

“First, we must investigate, in the field, the new St Catherine and Portmore parish boundaries. To achieve this accurately our team will be physically walking the boundaries, accompanied by guides and key stakeholders.

“Secondly, it is critical that when we do that work, we capture the GPS [Global Positioning System] coordinates for the new polling division boundaries within the parishes of St Catherine and Portmore,” he said.

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) boss said to establish these new boundaries “necessitates a number of changes, encompassing splits and mergers for existing polling divisions; it also will require the renumbering and potential renaming of St Catherine constituencies affected by the alignment.

“It also will require the renumbering of associated St Catherine electoral divisions, followed by the renumbering of polling divisions within those affected constituencies. And it has to be agreed upon, the official naming and numbering of the three designated Portmore constituencies.”

Brown said the process will also require the renumbering of the electoral divisions that now constitute parts of Portmore.

The process will also require the writing of the descriptions for all impacted PDs to reflect the changes agreed upon.

“These steps, the commission believes, will ensure the new electoral map is accurately defined and implemented both geographically and administratively,” said Brown.

He told the committee that the two major political parties will be required to submit written proposals.

“Hopefully, agreement can be reached by all members of the PBAC. Where there is disagreement, consultation will take place between the nominated commissioners of the ECJ and the director of elections. Following that, the preparation of a final draft of realignment for submission to the PBF for signing will take place,” said Brown.

He underscored that Members of Parliament (MPs) and constituency caretakers will also have to sign off on the new constituency boundaries, the electoral divisions and the numbering of the PDs.

“This agreement will then be submitted to the ECJ and, if admitted without any change by the commission, then we will move forward with preparing a report that will then be submitted to the boundaries committee,” Brown said.

If approved by the committee, the new electoral boundaries will be gazetted.

The ECJ will then communicate the effective date of the alignment, after which the voters’ list will be updated to reflect the new information.

The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has taken legal action to challenge the process which the governing Jamaica Labour Party is using to establish Portmore as Jamaica’s 15th parish.

Last month Chief Justice Bryan Sykes ruled in favour of the PNP’s application for an injunction to stop the Government from bringing the Act into force before complying with the requirements for Section 67 of the Constitution.

In response, both parties claimed that the ruling supported their position.

Fitz Jackson, the Opposition spokesman with responsibility for matters concerning Portmore, in a statement said the court order is a clear vindication of the People’s National Party’s position.

“This legal action, initiated by the PNP, was necessary to hold the Government accountable after it chose to ignore a letter dated June 18, 2024, sent to Parliament by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, which explicitly advised of this constitutional breach. The Government’s disregard for both the commission’s warning and the rule of law left us with no choice but to seek judicial intervention. The fact that the Court has compelled the Government to give an undertaking — effectively halting their unlawful actions — demonstrates the seriousness of their disregard for due process,” Jackson said in a statement.

However, Goverment legislator Alando Terrelonge, the Member of Parliament for St Catherine East Central, declared the ruling a “win for the people of Portmore and the Government of Jamaica”.

He said that after hearing arguments from both the Opposition’s legal team and the Government’s attorneys on Friday, March 28, Chief Justice Sykes “ruled against the application for an injunction and accepted the Government’s position that the act making Portmore the 15th parish would only come into operation after the completion of the procedure outlined in Section 67 of the Constitution”.

Terrelonge lauded the chief justice’s decision and emphasised that the concerns raised by the Opposition in relation to constituency boundary adjustments “are just another clear example of the Opposition’s small-mindedness and lack of vision for the growth and development of Portmore”.

Jamaicans are expected to return to the polls this year to elect a Government by September. The governing JLP is seeking a third term while the PNP is seeking its first hold on power since 2016.