Robert Montague (born 1965) is a Jamaican politician with the Jamaica Labour Party. He comes from a political family; his father Asquith Nathaniel was a charter member of the JLP. He entered politics in 1990 as a councillor for Carron Hall, Saint Mary Parish. [1] He later became the mayor of Port Maria. [2] In 2012, Opposition Leader Andrew Holness named him a member of the Senate of Jamaica. [3] He is now the Minister of Transport And Mining in the Andrew Holness-led government after winning the 2016 Jamaican general election. He is the MP for the Saint Mary Western constituency.
Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola ; the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 kilometres (134 mi) to the north-west.
The People's National Party (PNP) is a social-democratic political party in Jamaica, founded in 1938 by independence campaigner Osmond Theodore Fairclough. It holds 14 of the 63 seats in the House of Representatives, as 96 of the 227 local government divisions. The party is democratic socialist by constitution.
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is one of the two major political parties in Jamaica, the other being the People's National Party (PNP). While its name might suggest that it is a social democratic party, the JLP is actually a conservative party.
The parishes of Jamaica are the main units of local government in Jamaica. They were created following the English Invasion of Jamaica in 1655. This administrative structure for the Colony of Jamaica developed slowly. However, since 1 May 1867 Jamaica has been divided into the current fourteen parishes. These were retained after independence in 1962. They are grouped into three historic counties, which no longer have any administrative relevance. Every parish has a coast; none are landlocked.
Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller is a Jamaican politician. She served as Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2006 to September 2007 and again from 5 January 2012 to 3 March 2016. She was the leader of the People's National Party from 2005 to 2017 and the Leader of the Opposition twice, from 2007 to 2012 and from 2016 to 2017.
The Cabinet of the Government of Jamaica is the ultimate decision-making body of the executive within the Westminster system of government in traditional constitutional theory. The Cabinet of Jamaica is the principal instrument of government policy. It consists of the Prime Minister, and a minimum of thirteen other Ministers of Government, who must be members of one of the two Houses of Parliament. Not more than four members of the Cabinet may be members of the Senate. The Minister of Finance must be an elected member of the House of Representatives. The Shadow Cabinet of Jamaica is seen as the alternative to the Cabinet of Jamaica, led by the Leader of the Opposition (Jamaica), and is charged with fairly criticizing and providing alternative policy to that proposed by the Government.
Andrew Michael Holness, is a Jamaican politician who has been the Prime Minister of Jamaica since 3 March 2016, following the 2016 Jamaican general election. Holness previously served as prime minister from October 2011 to 5 January 2012. He succeeded Bruce Golding as prime minister, and decided to go to the polls in the 29 December 2011 general election in an attempt to get his own mandate from the Jamaican electorate. He failed in that bid, however, losing to the People's National Party led by Portia Simpson-Miller, with the PNP gaining 42 seats to the Jamaica Labour Party's 21. Following that defeat, Holness served as Leader of the Opposition from January 2012 to March 2016, when he once again assumed the position of prime minister. In 2020, The Labour Party won a landslide in another general election, and on 7 September Holness was sworn in for another term as prime minister.
Daryl Wesley Phillip Vaz is a Jamaican politician who is the Labour MP for Portland Western. He was the Minister of Information and Telecommunications in Jamaica from March 2009 to January 2016. His party lost the election in 2011 and Vaz served as opposition spokesman on Telecommunications. Vaz is currently Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, with responsibility for land, environment, climate change and investments, since the Jamaica Labour Party returned to government in March 2016. He also serves as Member of Parliament for the constituency of Portland Parish Western Division.
Kenneth Wykeham McNeill, MD, MP, CD is a Jamaican politician, former Member of Parliament for Westmoreland West, Jamaica. He is a former government minister. He was the Minister of Tourism of Jamaica from 2012 to 2016. He was elected the first vice chair of the Executive Council of the United Nations World Tourism Organization representing Jamaica in 2012 and elected chairman of the Executive council for the 2014-2015 period. McNeill was elected a Vice President of The People's National Party at the Party's annual conference in September 2016.
General elections were held in Jamaica on 29 December 2011. The elections were contested mainly between the nation's two major political parties, the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), led by Andrew Holness, and the Portia Simpson-Miller-led opposition People's National Party (PNP). The result was a landslide victory for the PNP which won 42 of the 63 seats, a two-thirds majority.
General elections were held in Jamaica on 25 February 2016. The elections were largely a contest between the governing People's National Party (PNP) and the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). The result was a narrow victory for the JLP, which won 32 of the 63 seats. One political commentator described the poll as "the closest election Jamaica has ever had".
Shahine Elizabeth Robinson was a Jamaican politician, who served as the Minister of Labour and Social Security. She was a member of the Parliament of Jamaica for Saint Ann North Eastern. She served briefly as the Transport and Works Minister from late November 2011 to January 2012.
Peter PhillipsMP is a Jamaican politician who is currently the MP for Saint Andrew East Central.
Angela Rosemarie Brown-Burke is a Jamaican politician with the People's National Party.
Kevin Mark Holness, better known as Mighty Mystic, is a Jamaican-born, Somerville, Massachusetts-based reggae artist. He is the younger brother to current Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
General elections were held in Jamaica on Thursday, 3 September 2020 to elect 63 members of Parliament. As the constitution stipulates a five-year parliamentary term, the next elections were not expected until between 25 February and 10 June 2021. However, Prime Minister Andrew Holness called early elections to ensure a united response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On the advice of Holness, Governor General Patrick Allen dissolved Parliament on 13 August 2020.
Fayval Shirley Williams is a Jamaican politician who is the Minister of Education, Youth and Information and the Member of Parliament for the St Andrew Eastern constituency. Williams had previously been the minister in the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology as well as the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. She is the first female to be a minister in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, and also the first female minister of science, energy and technology. In June 2014, Fayval Williams was named as a member of the Jamaica Labour Party's Economic Advisory Council.
Mary Morris Knibb, MBE was a Jamaican teacher, social reformer and philanthropist. She founded the Morris Knibb Preparatory School and donated a building which is used as the headquarters of the Moravian Church in Jamaica as well as land for construction of a community center. Morris Knibb was a women's rights activist and the first elected councilwomen in Jamaica. She was the first woman to vie for a seat in the House when Universal Suffrage was granted to all Jamaicans.
A by-election to the House of Representatives was held for the Saint Andrew North Western constituency on March 5, 2018. The seat was declared vacant after the resignation of Derrick Smith as member of Parliament effective January 15, 2018. The election was won by Nigel Clarke of the Jamaica Labour Party.
Derrick Vincent McKoy is the Attorney General of Jamaica. McKoy was appointed to the post on 11 January 2022 by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.