Matthew Hyatt | Election During COVID-19? A Recipe For Disaster

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20200823/matthew-hyatt-election-during-covid-19-recipe-disaster

The election was called for two reasons. One reason was political opportunism, the JLP was ahead in the polls and there is no fixed election date so the Prime Minister can call an election whenever he wants. There should be a fixed election date but it hasn't happened even though there have been promises. Elections are constitutionally due by the latest next March. With the virus, the economy is going to seriously decline by then so the Prime Minister felt the urgency to call it now. Also, at the time of the call, the virus numbers were manageable as the Independence celebration spike had not started yet. The second reason is that Jamaica is running low on foreign exchange. By November, the country will be critically short of foreign exchange. The government will need to go to the IMF and the international banking community to negotiate loans to bridge the foreign exchange gap between the fall and when the virus 'disappears' and tourism recovers - whenever that is. It now seems that the virus will be with us well into the new year which will mean Jamaica will be facing a drastic drop in foreign exchange from tourism - our second largest earner of foreign exchange. To negotiate a recovery plan with the IMF, the government needs its mandate to extend beyond early next year. The only way to do that is to have the election now.

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