Elections in Jamaica provides information on
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
and election results in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
.
The
Parliament of Jamaica
The Parliament of Jamaica is the legislative branch of the government of Jamaica. It consists of three elements: The Crown (represented by the Governor-General), the appointed Senate and the directly elected House of Representatives.
The S ...
has two
chambers
Chambers may refer to:
Places
Canada:
*Chambers Township, Ontario
United States:
*Chambers County, Alabama
* Chambers, Arizona, an unincorporated community in Apache County
* Chambers, Nebraska
* Chambers, West Virginia
* Chambers Township, Hol ...
:
* The
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
has 63 members, elected for a five-year term in single-seat
constituencies
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...
.
* The
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
has 21 appointed members: 13 chosen by the Prime Minister and 8 by the Leader of the Opposition.
Jamaica effectively has a
two-party system
A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referre ...
: there are two dominant
political parties
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...
, and it is difficult for other parties to achieve electoral success. The two parties were founded in 1938 and 1943 and first contested the 1944 election.
Though the years are fixed due to the five-year term of the prime minister, the date of the election is traditionally announced by the ruling party one month in advance. Recently, there has been debate over whether this "flexible date" system is the best for Jamaica, or whether the government should switch to a fixed date system.
Latest elections
September 3, 2020
Election reform
In 2008, Prime Minister Bruce Golding acknowledged at a Conference for the Association for Caribbean Electoral Organizations that there were a number of areas of concern in his country's election process including political financing for campaigns, the accountability of the electoral process and the impact positive or negative of the media on elections.
[System Will Always Be in Need of Modernisation... PM Cautions]
Office of the Prime Minister, Jamaica, November 10, 2008. Accessed July 22, 2009. The Prime Minister said that the government is looking at a number of activities that could help this process of reform.
[ These things were acknowledged in front of the CEO of the ]International Foundation for Electoral Systems
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is an international, non-profit organization founded in 1987. Based in Arlington, Virginia, the organization provides assistance and support for elections and electoral stakeholders in ne ...
, the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States
The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...
and the Electoral Office of Jamaica.[
]
See also
* List of political parties in Jamaica
Jamaica has two traditional parties from the old colonial era, they are the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP). The United Independents' Congress of Jamaica (UIC) became the first new (post colonial) registered poli ...
References
External links
JamaicaElections.comAdam Carr's Election Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elections In Jamaica