GoldingTHE OPPOSITION Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) yesterday named six new faces to the Senate, including former chairman Bruce Golding, Bustamante Industrial Trades Union vice-president Dwight Nelson and G2K leader Dr. David Panton.
The appointment of Mr. Golding ended weeks of speculation about his future in the party, to which the former chairman returned only two weeks before the October 16 parliamentary election.
Mr. Golding had left in 1995 to form the National Democratic Movement (NDM).
Dr. Panton is head of Generation 2000 (G2K), the group of young professionals affiliated with the JLP. Mr. Nelson, now the heir apparent to the Rt. Hon Hugh Shearer as leader of the BITU with the departure of co-vice presidents Pearnel Charles and Ruddy Spencer to the House of Representatives, was also a JLP Senator in the early 1990s.
Other newcomers are attorney-at-law Arthur Williams, who is the party's spokesman on transportation and who lost to Dr. Paul Robertson (PNP) in the general election in South East St. Catherine; Desmond McKenzie, the Councillor for the Tivoli Gardens; and Shirley Williams, former managing director of Metropolitan Parks and Markets (MPM).
Two veteran JLP Senators, Anthony Johnson and Dorothy Lightbourne, were renamed. Mr. Johnson, who will also retain the position of Opposition spokesman on Education, Science and Technology, is to assume the role of Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate succeeding Dr. Oswald Harding, who asked not to be reconsidered, according to a release from the JLP.
Miss Lightbourne will speak on matters pertaining to the Attorney-General's Department.
Current JLP chairman Ryan Peralto also asked not to be considered for reappointment, according to the release. Among those dropped were young attorney at law Brian Wallace and businessman Peter McConnell.
