Jamaica’s Bruce Golding has decided to step down as Prime Minister, saying that “The challenges of the last four years have taken their toll.” Golding announced yesterday that he would resign once a new Labor Party leader is elected; national elections are scheduled for October 2012. Here are excerpts with links to full articles below:
Four years and several high-profile scandals later, including the extradition of the country’s most notorious drug kingpin, Golding is calling it quits. [. . .] Jamaica observers and politicians say while the timing of Golding’s announcement came as a surprise, the decision did not. Since the JLP’s 2007 thin victory at the polls, the party has been struggling against a global recession that caused the loss of thousands of jobs, scandals involving leaders and the affair involving its most well-known and feared drug lord, Christopher “Dudus” Coke.
Coke is facing up to 23 years in U.S. prison for his involvement in an international crime ring. He has asked a U.S. federal judge for leniency after pleading guilty, raising suspicions and rumors that he’s cooperating with U.S. authorities and may have implicated members of the JLP. Either way, his case has rocked Jamaica, the JLP and Golding. It has raised questions about the prime minister’s credibility and leadership after he spent months stonewalling a U.S. extradition, arguing it breached Jamaican law. In the process, he was weakened and became even more vulnerable to the opposition People’s National Party.
“He has spent most of his political capital for the biggest drug don in Caribbean history,’’ said David Rowe, a South Florida Jamaican-born law professor. “He’s weak and he has done a very bad job. He has not had a very coherent foreign policy and his government has been dominated by scandal and influence of the Shower Posse (Coke’s group).’’[. . .]
Critics say while the matter could be viewed as a strictly Jamaica affair, it carries lessons for island nations throughout the Caribbean region about the need to protect party financing to avoid criminal elements such as Coke, whose West Kingston stronghold is in Golding’s district.
[. . .] Daryl Vaz, minister of information for Jamaica, said Golding is expected to step down either when the party meets Nov. 19-20, or just before. The decision about a successor has not yet been made.
For full article, see http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/26/2426540/bruce-golding-stepping-aside-as.html
For more information, see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/jamaica-opposition-calls-for-elections-after-golding-resigns.html
