Parishes of Jamaica or divided between neighbouring parishes. At the peak, 1841–1865, there were 22 (the current 14 plus those listed below). The current set of parishes was established in 1866 with the elimination of the 8 listed below (roughly by county): Surrey: Middlesex: Parishes of Jamaica Administratively, Jamaica is divided into fourteen parishes. They are grouped into three historic counties, which have no administrative relevance. Every parish has a coast; none is landlocked. The traditional county towns were Savanna-la-Mar for Cornwall County, Spanish Town for Middlesex County, and Kingston for Surrey County. The parishes of Kingston and Saint Andrew together form the
Politics of Jamaica power is vested both in the government and in the Parliament of Jamaica. A bipartisan joint committee of the Jamaican legislature drafted Jamaica's current Constitution in 1962. That Constitution came into force with the Jamaica Independence Act, 1962 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which gave Jamaica political independence. Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, freedom of movement, and freedom of association. The judiciary operates independently of the executive and the legislature, with jurisprudence based on English common law. The Economist Intelligence Unit has rated Jamaica as "flawed democracy" in 2016. Parliament