Weekly Report - 06 October 2011 (WR-11-40)

JAMAICA | Golding drops a bombshell. Prime Minister Bruce Golding has confirmed that he will step down in November, once a new leader for the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has been selected. Golding, who led the JLP back into power in 2007 after 18 years in opposition, first made the announcement on 25 September as he was preparing for his mother’s funeral. As well as citing his age and the need to “allow a new crop of leaders to step forward and unleash their energies and creativity” (see sidebar) Golding attributed his decision directly to the political fallout from his handling of a US request for the extradition of a drug baron, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, in May 2010 in which it transpired that he had hired a US-based firm, Manatt, Phelps & Philips, to lobby on the government’s behalf [WR-10-21]. Expressing concern that his presence would damage the JLP in the scheduled 2012 general election, Golding said that “questions about the role I played in the Coke/Manatt matter have remained a source of concern in the minds of many people”. But he reiterated his government’s argument that the evidence against Coke, gathered by US authorities through wiretaps, had been obtained illegally.