Girl With a Purpose (GWAP)

Jamaica's New Government: Post Election Results and Nation Awaits Naming of New Cabinet

Jamaica's 8th Prime Minister, the Honorable Orette Bruce Golding, was sworn in at 4:20 p.m. yesterday.

He pledged allegiance to Jamaica and planned to stamp-out corruption by having bi-partisan participation (both government and opposition members) on important committees that would ensure the proper accountability of the collection and spending of tax payers' money.

He also promised to enforce the laws and to modify the Constitution of Jamaica, to better ensure the protection of the human rights of Jamaicans.

The nation now awaits his naming of the members of Cabinet and the rest of the Parliament. This should occur tomorrow.

The members of Cabinet should be sworn in at 11:00 a.m on Friday, September 14, 2007.

(Please see Girl With a Purpose Blog's suggested Cabinet members, in our previous post, "Jamaica's New Government: Swearing In and Proposed New Cabinet".)

The results of the Magisterial recount that occurred in South East St.Mary is now known: the JLP's Mr. Tarn Peralto keeps his seat. He won by 37 votes, over the PNP's Mr. Harry Douglas.

The seat count in Jamaica's 60-member Parliament, remains at:

1) The JLP: 33 seats

2) The PNP: 27 seats

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) is seeking advice from the Solicitor General, re whether or not it should count the ballots in the 2 ballot boxes for South East St. Mary,that were found on Monday, September 10, 2007, locked, but not counted in the preliminary and final counts by the EOJ.

The Resident Magistrate refused to include the suspect boxes in the Magisterial recount on the grounds that the responsibility for their inclusion, actually belonged to the EOJ.

Gillian

Sources Include:

1) Power 106 News at 5:00 p.m. September 12, 2007

2) Television Jamaica's 7:00 p.m. Nightly News, September 11,2007

3) Article, "Bruce takes charge - Golding sworn in as Jamaica's eight Prime Minister",by Edmond Campbell, News Coordinator, Jamaica Gleaner, September 12, 2007

Jamaica's New Government:Swearing In and Proposed New Cabinet

 

Yes friends, Jamaica's Prime-Minister Designate, Bruce Golding is to be sworn in as Prime Minister, tomorrow, September 11, 2007.

We should know by next week what his Cabinet (the highest decision-making body in Parliament) and rest of Members of Parliament look like.

My suggestions for the Cabinet, are as follows:

1. Prime Minister and Minister of Defense - Mr. Bruce Golding
2. Minister of National Security - Mr. Derrick Smith
3. Minister of Finance & Development - Mr. Audley Shaw
4. Minister of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade  - Mr. Christopher Tufton
5. Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade - Mr. Karl Samuda
6. Minister of  Industry, Science, & Technology (With Energy) - Ms. Shirley Williams
7. Minister of Labour & Social Security - Mr. Ruddy Spencer
8. Minister of Health - Dr. Kenneth Baugh
9. Minister of Information - Mr. Dwight Nelson
10. Minister of Justice - Mr. Delroy Chuck
11. Minister of Education - Mr. Andrew Holness
12. Minister of Tourism, Entertainment & Culture - Mrs. Shahine Robinson
13. Minister of Agriculture - Mr. Andrew Gallimore
14. Minister of Transportation, Works and Disaster Preparedness - Mr. Pearnel Charles
15. Speaker of the House - Ms. Dorothy Lightbourne

Other Suggested Members of Parliament:

1. Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security - Mr. Trevor MacMillan
2. Minister of Housing and Inner City Renewal - Mr. Mike Henry
3. Minister of State in the Ministry  of Housing and Inner City Renewal - Dr. Horace Chang
4. Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Science, & Technology (With Energy) - Mr. Clive Mullings
5. Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture - Mr. Anthony Johnson
6. Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Development - Mr. James Robertson

This above persons are named, in order to balance youth, experience and managerial competence in the above ministries.

Do you agree or disagree with any of the above selections?

And if you disagree, who would you select to head the various Ministries?...please leave your comments below. :)

Sources Include:

1) Television Jamaica's 7:00 p.m. Nightly News September 7, 2007.

2) Nationwide Radio, September 7,2007

Jamaican Elections-3 Days After: JLP Officially Declared Winners!

The final ballot recount from the Electoral Office of Jamaica is in!

These are:

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP): 33 seats

The People's National Party (PNP) 27 seats

Seats gained since yesterday, September 5, 2007:

1) The JLP's Mr. Barrington Gray won the West Trelawny seat. While the seat was lost by the PNP's Dr. D.K. Duncan, by only 9 votes!!

2) South St. James was won by the PNP's Mr. Derrick Kellier. The seat was lost by the JLP's Mr. Noel Donaldson.

Congratulations, again to the JLP!!!

We at Girl With a Purpose Blog understand that Prime Minister- Designate Bruce Golding, should be sworn in by next week.

We will continue to keep you updated re the exact date and the structure of his new Cabinet (the highest decision-making body in Parliament.).

A few PNP and JLP candidates will be requesting Magisterial recounts of the seats that were lost by less than 200 votes. By law, this request should be submitted within four (4) days of the official announcement of the election results, which was today, September 6, 2007.

We will also keep you updated re the results of these requests.

Gillian

Sources Include:

1) Nationwide Radio, September 6, 2007

2)Power 106 News at 5:00 p.m., September 6, 2007

Jamaican Elections-2 Days After: Seat Count Increases for JLP!

The latest seat count in the Jamaican elections ballot recount is, the JLP 33 seats : the PNP 27 seats.

This increases the JLP's seat count by one.

The seat was won by the JLP's Mr. Tarn Peralto of South East St. Mary.

The PNP candidate who lost the seat is Mr. Harry Douglas, former Minister of State in the Ministry of Local Government and the Environment.

The final count will be announced tomorrow, by the Electoral Office of Jamaica.

Sources Include:

1) Nationwide Radio, September 5, 2007

2) Television Jamaica Nightly News at 7:00 p.m., September 5, 2007

Jamaican Elections: 2 Days After

Yes friends, former Jamaican Prime Minister and leader of the People's National Party, Portia Simpson Miller, has finally conceded defeat!

She has however done so with the following conditions:

1) That the recounting of ballots currently underway, shows the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) winning a majority of seats
2) Her party reserves the right to challenge any seat, based on "constitutional concerns", following the recount.

These constitutional concerns no doubt will include the PNP tyring to oust JLP Parliamentary Members (PMs) who are allegedly US citizens. (Under the Jamaican constitution, PMs cannot pledge allegiance to any other country, but Jamaica.

So present JLP candidates, who have won their seats and who are US Citizens, may not get a chance to sit in Parliament, unless they have renounced their US citizenship.

Whether this renouncement should have taken place prior to these candidates being nominated, or prior to them taking the Parliamentary oath is unclear.  But Girl With a Purpose Blog will keep you updated when this clear.)

The PNP is trying to use this situation to either gain a 30 PNP seat: 30 JLP seat balance in Parliament, or eventually hold a majority (over 30 seats) in Parliament.

[With a 30:30 split, then one person on either party would have to "cross the floor"(convert to the other party) so that that party could hold a majority number of Parliamentary seats.

The Jamaican constitution clearly states that one party must hold a majority in Parliament.]

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Just a correction to what was said in a previous post, "Jamaicans Vote Today! - PM Portia Simpson-Miller Refuses to Concede Defeat!" - the recount that is underway by the Electoral Office of Jamaica, is not a Magisterial Recount.

A Magisterial Recount will occur if candidates of either party, challenge the results of this current recounting exercise. Then the challenger will have to bring his/her case before a Registered Magistrate (a judge) of the Courts, who will order a recount, if a case is made for same.

Gillian

Sources Include:

Article, "Portia Concedes", Jamaica Gleaner, September 5, 2007

Jamaican Elections: The Day After

Yes friends, it's the day after the September 3 general elections in Jamaica and we have an update.

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (the organization responsible for conducting and managing the general elections) is currently recounting all ballots in all constituencies, due to the closeness of the preliminary count done yesterday.

So far the results are:
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP):  32 seats
The People's National Party (PNP): 28 seats

Short Background

In all, Jamaica is divided into 60 constituencies, for the purpose of electing 60 members of Parliament. Each Parliamentary member occupies a seat in Parliament, hence 60 seats.
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The recounting of the ballots in all constituencies should be finished by Thursday, September 6, 2007.

After which, the results will be passed on to Governor General  Professor Kenneth Hall, who will appoint a Prime Minister, based on the final results.

Unfortunately, we have had a few road blocks and sporadic gun-fire in some constituencies due to some persons' disagreement with the results of the elections.

But the police has everything under its control.

Will continue to keep you updated!

Gillian

Sources Include:

1) RJR Mid-day News, September 4, 2007

2) Power 106 FM, September 4, 2007