Andrew Holness

WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – Opposition Leader Andrew Holness says a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government will allow the Jamaican people to vote in a referendum to determine if there should be any amendment to the Buggery Act.

“You will also know that when it comes to time to determine whether or not we should make any changes to the Buggery Act, or to any other act that determines how Jamaicans see the family, you know that we are not going to take it up onto ourselves in Parliament to make that decision.

“We are going to come to you, the people of the country, to make that decision,” Holness told the JLP Area Council Four meeting held at the Mannings School here on Sunday.

Holness, meanwhile, lashed Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller who he quoted as saying that her immediate focus is to address the poverty of the Jamaican people, when she was asked for a schedule on amendments to the Buggery Act.

“… So they asked the prime minister, ‘Prime minister, what is the timetable for the removal of the Buggery Law?’ And she says: ‘Well, we have to go and we have to consult with the people you know, we have to go and consult with the people but right now it is not a priority because we have to deal with the poverty of the people.’

“And I reflected on what she said,” Holness said, adding that he had to ponder how the government’s push for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) was going to end poverty in Jamai