Former PM says Holness could run the country effectively with a one seat majority
Former prime minister Bruce Golding says Prime Minister elect Andrew Holness should be free to form his own cabinet, dismissing speculation that the one-seat majority for the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) could spell disaster for the incoming administration. Golding told reporters on Monday that the 32-31 result of the general election held last Thursday, should not be used as a mechanism to hold the 43-year-old Holness to ransom.
“With a tight majority of one, it would be a perfect situation if, after he has put together his Cabinet, everybody is happy. But human nature doesn’t function that way,” Golding said, noting that immediately after the February 25 poll, he sent Holness a message in which he advised him that “compromises very often have to be accommodated in the workings of politics.”
But he said he also urged Holness, who had replaced him as prime minister in 2011, not to let anybody hold a gun to his head in the decisions he will have to make.
“I may not be happy if I am not made minister of X or minister of Y, but if I am a member of the team; if I am a member of the parliament, my duty is not only to the party but to the country to support the Government at a time when the Government needs [the] full hundred support of its members,” he said. “Therefore, I hope that people will give him the space that he needs and allow him to exercise his discretion as he sees fit.”
The former Prime Minister, who said he played a role in getting JLP candidates campaign in at least 10 constituencies, said that he had also indicated to Holness his willingness to assist. He said he was due to meet with Holness on Monday night and would inform him “if there is an area where he feels my assistance can be of help to him then he will raise it. If it is something he already has under control he won’t waste his own time and waste mine,” he said, adding that Holness’ wife Juliet Holness should be considered for a cabinet position, like every other successful candidate of the JLP.
“I don’t think that she should be put in the cabinet because she’s his wife, but at the same time I don’t believe she should be left out of the cabinet because she’s his wife. It’s a judgement call that he must make, but he must make that based on the criteria which guides him,” Golding said.
Golding also said that Holness could run the country effectively with a one seat majority, even as he acknowledged that “it is going to be challenging to administer a government with a one-seat majority.
