SOEs to Expire Tuesday

The States of Public Emergency (SOEs) now in effect in several parishes and police divisions across the island will expire on Tuesday (Nov. 29).

This, after two resolutions to extend the enhanced security measures until January 14, 2023, failed to get a two-thirds majority vote, during Friday’s (Nov. 25) sitting of the Upper House.

All 13 Government Senators voted for the resolutions – the Emergency Powers (Parishes of St. James, Westmoreland, and Hanover) (Continuance) Resolution, 2022, and the Emergency Powers (Parishes of Clarendon and St. Catherine and Specified Areas in the Parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew) (Continuance) Resolution, 2022.

All eight Opposition Senators voted against the extension of the SOEs, which were announced by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, on November 15.

The resolutions, which were approved in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (Nov. 22), needed one vote from an Opposition Senator to be approved. The measures for the extension, require a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament.

Leader of Government Business in the Upper House and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, said that the SOE is a vital tool in saving lives.

She indicated that the areas under the security measure have realised a 73.9 per cent reduction in murders since the declaration.

Urging the Opposition’s support, she said that the Government must use the tools “constitutionally available to us to deliver the best possible results to the people.”

In the areas of the SOE, the security forces have the power to search, curtail operating hours of business, restrict access to places and detain persons without a warrant.

It also gives them the power to stop and question persons, seize property and control public gatherings and movements.

The Constitution provides that a period of public emergency can be declared by proclamation if the Governor-General is satisfied that action has been taken or is immediately threatened by any person or body of persons of such a nature, and on so extensive a scale, as to be likely to endanger public safety.