BREAKING NEWS
Jamaica opposition scores landslide win
The Portia Simpson Miller-led People's National Party (PNP), Jamaica's leading opposition party, has scored a landslide victory in the country's parliamentary election on Thursday.
Preliminary results late Thursday indicated the left-leaning party had won 41 out of 63 constituencies, giving it a resounding majority and showing the door to Andrew Holness, 39, the country's youngest-ever prime minister.
Holness assumed office on October 23 when Bruce Golding stepped down under pressure.
Golding, who led the Jamaica Labour Party to victory in 2007 and ended 17 straight years of PNP rule, resigned in the political fallout from the government's fight against the extradition to the United States of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, reportedly the former leader of the Shower Posse, a JLP-tied gang.
Coke -- accused of running a vast arms and drug trafficking operation -- pleaded guilty in August to one count of racketeering conspiracy.
Within hours of polls closing, Simpson Miller, the designated prime minister, delivered an acceptance speech vowing greater transparency.
"You will know everything. We will never hide anything from you. Now you have a government you can trust," she told jubilant supporters.
Holness told reporters late on Thursday after calling the 66-year-old Simpson Miller to concede defeat: "The people of Jamaica have spoken."
"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."
