GOLDING and WITTER
Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
SENATOR BRUCE Golding, the recently-elected leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), is expected to get the chance on Wednesday, April 13, to become the Member of Parliament for West Kingston.
Jamaica House in a release yesterday said that Prime Minister P.J. Patterson had advised the Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke of the date for the holding of a by-election to fill the seat vacated by Edward Seaga in January.
Nominations for Senator Golding and his People's National Party's (PNP) rival Joseph 'Bunny' Witter, will be on Wednesday, March 23.
Senator Golding is expected to win the contest hands down because the constituency is a JLP stronghold, which was represented for more than 40 years by Mr. Seaga who retired earlier this year to take up a position as an academic on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.
EXPECTED VICTORY
The JLP leader's expected victory in the upcoming poll will propel him to the position of Leader of the Opposition, thus completing his ascendancy to the helm of the Opposition party.
Yesterday, JLP officials appeared relieved at the announcement of the by-election date. "As far as the political machinery is concerned, that is in place and we are ready to go," an upbeat JLP General Secretary Karl Samuda told The Gleaner.
Director of Elections Danville Walker said yesterday that the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EoJ) was ready for the by-election. "We'll be fine," he said. "We have more than sufficient to be ready."
For its part, the PNP said it was eagerly looking forward to the election.
Colin Campbell, Deputy General Secretary, said the PNP's campaign team was already in place, and all senior party officials had been assigned special tasks.
"We are taking this by-election very seriously," he said. "There will be a new system in place to ensure one man one vote."
ELECTRONIC VOTING
Mr. Patterson's announcement of the by-election date followed a series of promptings, the latest being on Tuesday by noted constitutional lawyer Dr. Lloyd Barnett who is also chairman of Citizens' Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE).
On Tuesday evening, the House of Representatives amended and passed three bills allowing the pilot usage of electronic voting in the West Kingston by-election.
The bills are an Act to Amend the Parish Councils Act, an Act to Amend the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act, and an Act to Amend the Representation of the People Act.
Nearly two weeks ago, Opposition Senators, claiming they were hoodwinked, became upset after the Senate was adjourned without passing the three bills which the House of Representatives had approved earlier the same week.
