Weekly Report - 27 October 2011 (WR-11-43)

JAMAICA | New Prime Minister takes office. Jamaica’s education minister Andrew Holness has officially taken over from Bruce Golding as leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and Prime Minister following the latter’s shock decision to quit last month. Holness’s assumption of power on 23 October was an effortless procession after his chief rivals stepped aside earlier this month [WR-11-40]. Aged 39, Holness becomes the youngest head of government in Jamaica’s history. Polls have long shown him as the only real threat to the leader of the opposition People’s National Party (PNP), Portia Simpson Miller, ahead of the 2012 general elections: according to a poll published in the Jamaica Gleaner early this month, with Holness and Simpson Miller at the helm of their parties Simpson Miller would receive 44% of the vote, compared with 40% for Holness, although this remains within the 4% margin of error. Simpson Miller had appeared well ahead of Golding in previous polls.

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