Weekly Report - 30 September 2003

While the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) insists that a decision on the replacement of appeal to the Privy Council should precede any move towards transforming Jamaica into a republic, prime minister PJ Patterson has announced, as we had anticipated, a deadline for the change: March 2005. He told the convention of his People's National Party (PNP), `I believe every person in Jamaica and at least those who have spoken so far on the matter accepts that the time has come when we must move from a monarchical form of government to a republican form of government.'