JLP senator accuses Golding of ‘potentially derailing Jamaica’s constitutional reform process’
Vanassa McKenzie / Our Today
The governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is accusing Opposition Leader Mark Golding of potentially derailing the process for the country to transition to republic status.
Government Senator Sherene Golding Campbell, a member of the JLP’s public relations council, said in a statement on Tuesday (May 14), that a bipartisan committee chaired by Constitutional Affairs Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte was established to conduct a review of how best to expeditiously complete the process of Jamaica becoming a republic.
She said the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) has worked and prepared recommendations with the aim of achieving Jamaica’s transition to republic status.
“Therefore, it is disappointing that despite significant progress made in acting on wide-spread public sentiment that Jamaica should become a republic, the opposition leader has chosen to potentially derail the process by making demands at the proverbial 11th hour,” Campbell said. “We remain hopeful that the opposition will see the wisdom of returning to the table to act upon implementing the widely expressed desire of the Jamaican people.”
Golding last week instructed the two PNP representatives on the CRC, Senator Donna Scott Mottley and Anthony Hylton, not to sign off on a report by the committee to be tabled in Parliament due to concerns he raised about the need for Jamaica to separate from the Privy Council.
Having raised his concern to Prime Minister Andrew Holness on several occasions, the PNP leader indicated that he has yet to hear the prime minister clarify his position on the matter.
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