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Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the legislation to make Portmore a parish has been drafted but the government will not seek to have it approved by Parliament before the upcoming local government election.
Mr. Holness was responding to comments that the Jamaica Labour Party is seeking make Portmore a parish and effect attendant boundary changes for political gain.
He said the government is not rushing the process.
"Our bill is ready to go to the Parliament. We were ready for a little while now.... We will probably go to Parliament; we will take it, but we will not pass it because there is no way that we could seek to establish a parish and it be clouded in political accusations. No," he insisted.
The Prime Minister was speaking Wednesday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Portmore Resilience Park.
Work on the public park is slated to begin on February 5 and is expected to be completed by September 2025. The $4.4 billion project will be managed by the Urban Development Corporation.
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for St. Catherine South Fitz Jackson has said he is in support of a consultative process in making Portmore a parish.
Mr. Jackson maintained that the residents of Portmore must have a say in the process, adding that he is "pleased that the Prime Minister has allowed good sense to prevail".
"We have made it clear. If the people of Portmore explicitly indicate that they want a mere designation, then so be it. In much the same way that the municipality that we have now is what they said that they wanted, both in structure and in its operational form," he asserted.
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