The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Jamaica opposition scores landslide win at polls
- Jamaica's ruling party concedes election defeat
- North Korea's new leadership lashes out at South Korea
| Jamaica opposition scores landslide win at polls Posted: 29 Dec 2011 08:16 PM PST KINGSTON (Reuters) - Jamaica's main opposition party rode a wave of discontent with a bad economy to a big win at the polls on Thursday, in elections that swept former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller back into office.
Preliminary official results showed Simpson Miller's People's National Party, or PNP, winning 41 of the 63 parliamentary seats at stake in the national election. The results gave the Jamaica Labour Party, or JLP, of Prime Minister Andrew Holness just 22 seats. "The people of Jamaica have spoken," Holness, 39, told reporters late on Thursday after calling the 66-year-old Simpson Miller to concede defeat. "I wish the new government well," he said. "There are challenges that they will face, challenges that we are quite well aware of. And we hope for the benefit of the country and for the interest of the people of Jamaica that they will do a good job, The centre-right JLP is considered slightly more conservative than Simpson Miller's PNP, which narrowly lost a general election in 2007 after she briefly served as Jamaica's first female premier. But there are no major ideological differences between the parties, in a country once notorious for political bloodletting. Analysts have said neither party would have much room for manoeuvre in office as it deals with a huge debt burden and high unemployment. Many expect the new government will be forced to implement unpopular austerity measures, including possible layoffs of state workers, in an effort to shore up the economy after it received a $1.27 billion lifeline from the International Monetary Fund last year. Simpson Miller did not spell out any belt-tightening or other economic measures in a long and rambling victory speech outside her campaign headquarters in the capital, Kingston. But she has vowed to appeal to the IMF to extend the period Jamaica has to repay any loans, to give the Caribbean island more leeway to jump-start the economy. Holness took office in October after his predecessor surprisingly resigned. Although one of the Caribbean's more developed economies, Jamaica is saddled with a public debt load totalling more than 120 percent of gross domestic product. That has proved a huge drag on the economy, which is dependent on tourism and has failed to grow over the past four years, sputtering since the JLP took power. Unemployment has risen to 12.9 percent from 9.8 percent in 2007. (Writing by Tom Brown; Editing by Peter Cooney) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Jamaica's ruling party concedes election defeat Posted: 29 Dec 2011 07:03 PM PST KINGSTON (Reuters) - Jamaica's ruling party conceded defeat in national elections on Thursday, as preliminary official results showed the party of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller scoring a landslide victory. "The people have spoken," said Karl Samuda, campaign director of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party. "We have not won," Samuda conceded in his comments to national television.
"We have done what we could on behalf of the people of Jamaica," Samuda added. "There will be another day." (Reporting by Horace Helps; Editing by Tom Brown) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| North Korea's new leadership lashes out at South Korea Posted: 29 Dec 2011 06:55 PM PST SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's first official communication with the outside world following the death of leader Kim Jong-il and the transition of power to his son was a sombre warning to South Korea and its allies that it would not change policies. The main target of the message, delivered by state news agency KCNA and attributed to the North's National Defence Commission, was South Korea's conservative government headed by President Lee Myung-bak who has pursued a hardline stance against the isolated and impoverished North.
"On this occasion, we solemnly declare with confidence that foolish politicians around the world including the puppet forces in South Korea should not expect any changes from us," said the commission which was the top governing body under Kim Jong-il. Under Kim Jong-il, who died earlier this month aged 69, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests. In 2010 it shelled a South Korean island and - most independent observers believe - sank a South Korean naval vessel. The North denies the sinking and says it was provoked into the artillery barrage that killed civilians. Kim Jong-il's son, Kim Jong-un, the third member of his family to rule North Korea, has made no public statements since the death of his father whose vast funeral procession was held two days ago. (Reporting by Seoul bureau; Editing by Ed Lane) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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