News Americas, KINGSTON, Jamaica, Tues. Sept. 27, 2011: With Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, announcing his departure Sunday, the focus has now turned to who will replace him into the next general election.
Attention is now focused on Education Minister Andrew Holness and Commerce Minister Christopher Tufton, young Jamaica Labor Party politicians who are also relatively popular with the public. But yet another possibility is finance minister Audley Shaw.
Golding has so far made no public comments since he and the JLP announced Sunday that he is stepping down after four years in office. PM Golding is set to formally resign once a new party leader is chosen in an internal election expected in November but which could be fast forward because of the turn of events.
Golding, who has been Jamaica’s prime minister since 2007 when he returned the Labor Party to power after 18 years in opposition, has faced criticism at home and from Washington over his resistance to at first handing over drug lord, Christopher Dudus Coke.
Coke has since copped a plea from federal prosecutors in New York.
