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Halshane Burke reports
The public appetite to make Portmore the 15th parish is low, even as the government continues to push the controversial move.
The findings of the latest RJRGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll suggest that one in every two Jamaicans disagree with giving parish status to the Sunshine City.
The verdict by 50.9 per cent of polled people is that they do not support the move to make Portmore the 15th parish.
On the other hand, 32.9 per cent were in favour of a parish designation for Portmore while 16.2 per cent were undecided.
Pollster and head of Market Research Services, Don Anderson, said the results were largely dictated by how respondents say they would be voting in the next general election.
"Because those persons who said they were supporting the People's National Party - of course, the leaders of the People's National Party opposed it - so 50 per cent of those who we interviewed said no we don't believe Portmore should be [a parish], and the large majority of those were people who supported the People's National Party. But 33 per cent of those we interviewed said we believe Portmore should become [a parish]. And within that, you'll have supporters of both political parties, but again, most of them were from the Jamaica Labour Party," he outlined.
The poll was conducted between May 16 and June 7 among 1,033 registered voters, 18 years and older.
It has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.
The Portmore parish law has been a point of heated debate between the government and opposition especially in recent months.
The Jamaica Labour Party on February 11 leveraged its majority in the House of Representatives to push through the Counties and Parishes Amendment Act 2025 to establish Portmore as Jamaica's newest parish.
Subsequently, the Senate also passed the bill on February 28.
However, the People's National Party did not back down, taking legal action to block the pursuit.
Movement has since stalled as the government was ordered to pause the implementation following a Supreme Court ruling stemming from an injunction sought by the PNP.
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes ruled that port more can be officially made a parish but only once the proper constitutional procedures are fully satisfied.