JLP gears for House clashes
Published:Monday | May 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
THE JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) has hinted that it is heading to Parliament tomorrow prepared for a possible no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
The prime minister offered his resignation - which was later rejected - to the party following an admission that he sanctioned a messy move to engage a United States (US) law firm to lobby on behalf of the JLP.
Dr Ken Baugh, chairman of the party, has said the offer of resignation by Golding was the right thing to do, but said the party turned it down because its members believed he was handling the economy well.
However, with the parliamentary Opposition vowing to keep up the pressure on Golding until he resigned, Baugh predicted that tomorrow's sitting of the House of Representatives could be a defining moment.
"On Tuesday, we will be in Parliament again and I am certain that that issue will occupy all the time in Parliament," Baugh said.
Already, the parliamentary group has signalled that it is solidly behind Golding. The JLP holds a slender four-seat majority in the 60-seat House of Representatives. This majority is narrowed to three as the speaker of the House, who is a member of the JLP, does not vote whenever a divide is called.
Yesterday, Samuda said the prime minister was insistent that he wanted to hear frank, honest opinion from his membership on his future.
"He has insisted on it and they have been very forthcoming in their responses," Samuda said. "Any hopes of having him leave because of this issue, those are forlorn hopes."
Meanwhile, the JLP general secretary, while admitting that the Manatt fiasco has hurt the party, dismissed suggestions that the JLP was afraid to face the people of Jamaica in a forced general election.
"We have fought battles before we have had challenges before and we have overcome them," Samuda said.
Golding and the JLP have been under pressure for a perceived conflict of interest and interference of members of the party in an extradition request for alleged crime lord Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, a party backer in the prime minister's West Kingston constituency.
Coke is wanted in the US for drug trafficking and gunrunning, but the prime minister has said that evidence obtained against Coke was illegally passed to the US.