Jamaica: It’s official Audley Shaw launches leadership bid for JLP – advocating for term limits for Prime Minister

Audley Shaw. PHOTO/File

Jamaica’s former finance minister Audley Shaw has formally launched his campaign to become the leader of the opposition Jamaica Labor Party.

Audley Shaw will be challenging immediate past prime minister Andrew Holness for the position, who political analysts feel would not be able to effectively challenge the incumbent popular Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller.

In his acceptance speech, Shaw strongly reiterated calls for a two-term limit for Jamaican prime ministers. “We must introduce term limits for prime ministers of Jamaica”, Shaw told hundreds of delegates who braved heavy rain to attend the launch at Manchester High School.

The issue of term limits was a source of vigorous debate in the 1990s and early 2000s — a position strongly advocated by former prime minister Bruce Golding when he broke away from the Jamaica Labor Party to lead the National Democratic Movement. Golding would return to the Jamaica Labor Party to lead that party to electoral victory in 2007, but the issue of term limits has had less resonance since.

Read more: Jamaica Observer