One election at a time

THE EDITOR, Madam:

ANY SUGGESTION of having both the general and local government elections this year isn’t wise.

When it comes to democracy, we shouldn’t look at the price tag, because I believe the price tag would be worse under a dictatorship. I don’t believe in having a grand referendum and an election at the same time, and so I wholeheartedly don’t believe in a general election and a local government election on the same date in a monarchy.

Local government elections are due November of this year, hence

I believe the general election will be called on May 28, 2020 – that’s Edward Seaga’s birthday.

The latest I see a general election is August – that’s after the Olympics hype. I believe it will be a mistake to have a crucial general election in the same month as the United States presidential election.

I hope Prime Minister Andrew Holness learnt from the December 29, 2011 general elections.

Most democracies over the word have presidential, parliamentary, senate and local elections separately. The price for democracy isn’t cheap.

Bruce Golding won the general election in September 2007 and had a local government election in December 2007. Portia Simpson Miller won the general election in December of 2011 and had a local in March of 2012. Andrew Holness won the general election in February 2016, then had a local in November 2016.

So basically, since we now have a fixed date for local government elections (every four years in November), we should now finally have a fixed general election date every four or five years, in either December or February.