KINGSTON, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced tonight that Jamaicans will go to the polls on Thursday, September 3.
Nomination Day is Tuesday, August 18.
“We will be quick, we will be efficient, we will be peaceful,” Holness told Parliament after making the announcement.
“We’re having an election in a pandemic… the kind of campaign to which we’re accustomed may not be the kind of campaign that will materialise,” he said.
Holness made the announcement in a relatively brief speech which followed the House of Representatives’ vote to end the current States of Emergency by August 17, fulfilling his pledge not to hold elections under emergency powers.
He said that he advised the Governor General to dissolve Parliament on Thursday, August 13.
The announcements came tonight at the end of another marathon meeting of the House of Representatives, during which the MPs also agreed to extend the current four Zones of Special Operations (ZOSOs) by another 60 days.