Second ceremony for councillors who want to make affirmation

FOUR OF the seven newly elected councillors in the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) who made an affirmation instead of swearing on the Bible at that corporation’s swearing-in ceremony on Thursday March 7 will have to go through the motions of making an affirmation once more based on the request of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development.

A circular was sent out by the HMC inviting the four councillors and other persons to a special meeting of the corporation to be held today, the purpose of which is to “facilitate the newly elected councillors of the HMC who did not wish to swear in, in accordance with Section 29 of the Local Government Act 2016, doing an affirmation of office in substitution”.

The matter (affirmation instead of swearing in) has become an issue within municipal corporations after the last local government elections as two newly elected councillors in the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) in Montego Bay, St James, were denied the right to take up their duly elected positions in that body’s meeting on March 7 as they refused to swear in, choosing to make an affirmation.

Following a revision of the act governing the procedure, it was found that there is provision in the law allowing elected officials the option of affirmation, and accordingly, the two councillors were eventually allowed to exercise that choice at a later meeting date and are now officially performing their duties as elected councillors in the StJMC.

Checks with Chief Executive Officer of the HMC, David Gardner, as to the reason for a second official function, revealed that it is a requirement from the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development.

“Arising from the situation in Montego Bay where two councillors were not allowed to affirm the ministry through its legal team has provided us with a standardised affirmation that they want all councillors who are going that route to do.They have asked us to use it, so even those who would have affirmed in the ceremony (already held on March 7) to do it in a standardised way,”he stated.

Gardner expressed the view that as far as he was aware, those councillors who made an affirmation at the previous swearing-in ceremony had done nothing illegal, but they are all being asked to take the standardised version of the affirmation for ministry purposes.