Member of Parliament for East Central St Catherine, Alando Terrelonge, has declared that "political gimmicks" will not disrupt the future of Portmore.

Terrelonge made the comment in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday morning, hours after Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and People's National Party (PNP) supporters verbally clashed at a public consultation meeting at the Portmore City Municipality's headquarters.

The meeting was organised and held by the municipality to discuss issues relative to the sunshine city becoming a parish, a week after the Government utilised its parliamentary majority to pass legislation in the House of Representatives amending the 1867 Counties and Parish Act to potentially establish Portmore as Jamaica's 15th parish.

Videos circulating online of the incident included an instant when Portmore Mayor, Leon Thomas, is seen in what appeared to have been a tussle with two women.

Thomas then joined other residents in shouting at Terrelonge, "Shame on you!"