National I.D. Bill Passed

Senate Passes NIDS

Kamina Johnson Smith, the Leader of Government Business in the Senate

The Senate on Monday night passed the controversial National Identification and Registration Act 2017 with 168 ammendments following a marathon sitting in Parliament.

It was passed without any votes of approval from Opposition senators.

The Bill seeks to facilitate the establishment and regulation of a system for the registration, verification and authentication of the identity of citizens and other persons residing in Jamaica, and a National Civil and Identification Database to generate national identification cards.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said that the establishment of a reliable national identification system for Jamaicans is pivotal to the Government’s thrust to combat corruption.

“Anti-corruption efforts require a process of establishing, verifying and certifying identity. Several different databases of identity, using different standards and means of identification without a means of crossmatching, do not enhance transparency,” Holness said at an event earlier this week.