Politics
Jamaica Prime Minister to step down
Last month, Coke pleaded guilty to racketeering and assault charges, admitting his leadership of the brutal Shower Posse gang. He is due to be sentenced in December.
The Coke controversy prompted Golding to offer his resignation last year, but it was rejected by his party.
Peter Phillips, a spokesman for the main opposition People’s National Party, asserted that the ruling party’s announcement was brought on by the Coke saga, one of the bloodiest episodes in Jamaica’s recent history, and the government’s inability to fix the island’s economy.
“I think it is reflective of the low standing the prime minister has amongst the Jamaican people. His credibility was destroyed in the Christopher Coke fiasco,” Phillips said during a Sunday phone interview.
From its national executive council gathering in the northern city of Montego Bay, the People’s National Party (PNP) called on Golding to immediately call general elections “to resolve the crisis of governance in the country.”
Golding, the son of a successful businessman who also served in Parliament, returned his party to power in 2007 after 18 years in opposition.
Last year, he vowed to crush street gangs and replace their strong-armed rule with social programs for the poor. While security forces have since launched a sustained crackdown on gangs that has resulted in decreases in homicides and other crimes, Jamaica’s sprawling underclass is still struggling.
Golding has repeatedly denied any ties to Coke, and even resigned from the Labor Party in the mid-1990s to form a new party that would be free of gang links. He rejoined Labor in 2002.
Political observers say Golding could not have been elected to his parliament seat without the support of Coke, the former don of Tivoli Gardens, which has a long-standing reputation as a vote-rich stronghold for the Jamaica Labor Party. Coke also thrived under the opposition People’s National Party, which led the island for nearly two decades before Labor’s 2007 win.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
