#JaVotes2020 | Parliament To Be Dissolved On Thursday

By: Admin

Image caption: Gordon House - File photo

Parliament is to be dissolved on Thursday as the country goes into a general election.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness yesterday announced that Jamaicans will go to the polls on Thursday, September 3.

READ: Holness seeks second mandate

Nomination Day will be Tuesday, August 18, 2020. 

It will be Jamaica's 18th general election since Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944.

Some 1,913,410 persons are eligible to vote.

Here are some facts about the dissolution of parliament:

* Dissolution refers to the official end of a Parliamentary term.

* Although the Parliament has been dissolved, the Prime Minister and other Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition will continue in their respective roles until the Governor-General makes new appointments.  Likewise, when the Parliament is dissolved the President and Deputy President, and Speaker and Deputy Speaker continue to hold office until new members are elected to those offices.

* At dissolution, as with prorogation, all activities of both Houses come to a halt, including activities of all Sessional and Select Committees. 

* Matters on the table of both Houses “fall off”, but unlike prorogation, upon dissolution there is no possibility for revival in the next Parliament; all matters that were outstanding at dissolution would have to be laid afresh and addressed as new matters.  This is in keeping with the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, whereby one Parliament cannot bind or be bound by the actions of another Parliament.

* Prorogation refers to the end of the parliamentary session, usually at the end of the legislative year.