ECJ To Commence Fieldwork To Map New Boundary For St. Catherine

The Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) is preparing to commence fieldwork to map the new boundary for St. Catherine.

Director of Elections, Glasspole Brown, made the disclosure during Wednesday’s (April 16) meeting of the Constituency Boundaries Committee at Gordon House.

He informed that the ECJ has written to the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to obtain the new boundary for the redefined parish of St. Catherine.

“As you would appreciate, Portmore was a part of the old St. Catherine. Therefore, there is a new boundary description for the new St. Catherine, and that would have to be gazetted. So we await that aspect of it,” the Director stated.

Mr. Brown said a Parish Boundary Forum (PBF) is to be established and will be chaired by one of the parish’s Senior Returning Officers.

“That person will be appointed by me, the Director of Elections. The PBF, according to the guidelines, will be supported by a Parish Boundary Advisory Committee (PBAC), which also will be chaired by a Senior Returning Officer from the parish, appointed by me, the Director of Elections,” he explained.

Mr. Brown further indicated that the ECJ will provide the necessary guidance and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology support, and electronic and paper mapping to assist all stakeholders throughout the project’s implementation.

“An initial meeting of the Parish Boundary Forum will be convened shortly, and there’s an agreed structure in the guideline in terms of the makeup of that PBF. The Parish Boundary Advisory Committee will also be tasked to begin to conduct fieldwork, realigning the constituency boundaries, reconfiguring the electoral divisions and also writing the constituency and polling division descriptions,” he said.

“That’s a part of the fieldwork that needs to be done. The fieldwork involves two primary objectives. First, we must investigate in the field, the new St. Catherine and Portmore Parish Boundary. To achieve this accurately, our team will be physically walking the boundaries, accompanied by guides and key stakeholders,” the Director explained.

Mr. Brown emphasised that, “it is critical that when we do that work [that] we capture the GPS coordinates for the new polling division boundaries within the parishes of St. Catherine and Portmore”.

Establishing these new boundaries will necessitate several changes encompassing splits and mergers for existing polling divisions and 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,” Mr. Brown said.

He added that the official naming and numbering of the three designated Portmore constituencies has to be agreed on.

“That will be critical in terms of naming those three new constituencies that should remain in the new Portmore Parish. It will also require the renumbering of those electoral divisions that now constitute part of Portmore. And finally, it will require the writing of the polling division descriptions for all impacted polling divisions to reflect the changes agreed upon,” the Director further outlined.

Mr. Brown said these steps will ensure the new electoral map is accurately defined and implemented both geographically and administratively.

As part of the process, both major political parties will also be required to submit written proposals.

Members of Parliament, constituents, caretakers and Returning Officers need to sign off on the new constituency boundary realignment, electoral divisions and also the polling division numbering.

Mr. Brown said based on the guidelines established and agreed on by the Commission, the General Secretaries of both major political parties, will also have to sign the agreement.

“These agreements or disagreements will then be submitted to the ECJ, and if accepted without any change by the Commission, then we move forward in preparing a report that will then be submitted back to the Boundaries Committee of Parliament,” he advised.

“On approval of this Committee, the next step will then lead to the gazetting of the new electoral boundaries, the electoral divisions, the polling divisions and the constituency boundaries. Once this part is agreed to, then the acceptance of the Parliament will then be sought through this Committee and then we’ll proceed, based on that communication that will come back from the Parliament,” the Director added.

He further stated that the ECJ will, thereafter. proceed in terms of doing the final step of the arrangement.

“That is our responsibility, to communicate the effective date of the realignment, after which the voters list data set will be updated to reflect the new information, the new constituencies, the new electoral division and polling division,” the Director said.

Mr. Brown indicated that, at this stage, the ECJ will begin printing the list which will be published to all the constituencies and the parishes of St. Catherine and Portmore.

“Then Portmore will be officially, based on the electoral aspect of it, then be established, guided by the electoral process,” he stated.