THE OPPOSITION Jamaica Labour Party(JLP) has scored a decisive victory over the ruling People's National Party (PNP) in the first Local Government elections since 1998.
In the same way they had tightened the parliamentary balance of power in last October's General Election, the JLP ended the local dominance of the ruling party which had won control of all the Parish Councils and the KSAC in the 1998 polls.
Winning or losing these elections does not of course change the balance of political power where it matters - in the administration of Central Government.
But it should be a wake-up call to the ruling party that local administration has been too long in the doldrums of neglect and dependency.
The election campaign barely canvassed the long-promised reforms that the new municipality of Portmore presumably represents. Arguably, the demographics of Portmore may have posed a challenge in terms of whether it should be a dormitory settlement of capital Kingston or parish suburb to the long-established Old Capital of Spanish Town.
In making municipal history as the first set of citizens to directly elect its Mayor, Portmore has broken new ground. How it will work in tandem or otherwise with the St. Catherine Parish Council remains to be seem.
If direct election of a mayor can enhance the sense of community participation in governance, it is worth expanding to existing parish capitals; although voting for His or Her Worship may be no more cosmetic than voting for an MP. Still it may be one concrete step to real reform that ordinary people may feel a part of.
Matters of financial resources will have to be resolved, for continued dependence on Central Government will make a farce of real autonomy. The commonplace urban facilities - water supplies, sanitation, health, fire services and the like - must be made to work efficiently to foster civic pride as vital ingredients of real local government.
In one other respect these elections have served to point a new way forward. The voters of St. Andrew Eastern were part of a pilot project to establish electronic identification of voters by way of
fingerprints.
We await the result of this experiment to climb one more hurdle to free and fair elections by the modern means of high technology.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
