Politics in Jamaica takes place in the framework of a representative parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The 1962 Constitution of Jamaica established a parliamentary system whose political and legal traditions closely follow those of the United Kingdom. As the head of state,King Charles III - on the advice of the Prime Minister of Jamaica - appoints a governor-general as his representative in Jamaica. The governor-general has a largely ceremonial role,with their parliamentary function consisting simply of granting royal assent to bills which have passed Parliament. Jamaica constitutes an independent Commonwealth realm.
Michael Norman Manley was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program,and has been described as a populist. He remains one of Jamaica's most popular prime ministers.
Percival Noel James Patterson,,popularly known as P.J. Patterson,is a Jamaican former politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1992 to 2006. He served in office for 14 years,making him the longest-serving prime minister in Jamaica's history. He was the leader of the People's National Party from 1992 to 2006.
Edward Philip George Seaga was a Jamaican politician. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica,from 1980 to 1989,and the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He served as leader of the opposition from 1974 to 1980,and again from 1989 until January 2005.
Roosevelt Skerrit is a Dominican politician who has been Prime Minister of Dominica since 2004;he has also been the Member of Parliament for the Vieille Case constituency since 2000. Regionally,he has served as the chairman of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and most recently as chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in 2010. Skerrit is currently the longest-serving prime minister of Dominica.
Eileen Christine Desmond was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Health and Minister for Social Welfare from 1981 to 1982. She served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1965 to 1969,1973 to 1981 and 1981 to 1987. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Munster constituency from 1979 to 1981. She was a Senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel from 1969 to 1973.
Lisa Rene Shanti Hanna is a Jamaican politician and beauty queen who was crowned Miss World 1993,becoming the third Jamaican to win the title. A member of the opposition People's National Party,Hanna currently serves as Member of Parliament for Saint Ann South East,and was Jamaica's Minister of Youth and Culture from 2012–2016. Hanna was a candidate in the 2020 People's National Party leadership election,following the PNP's defeat at the 2020 Jamaican general election and the subsequent resignation of PNP President and Opposition Leader,Peter Phillips. Hanna was defeated by Mark Golding.
Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller is a Jamaican former 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.
Stanley Clinton Clinton-Davis,Baron Clinton-Davis,was a British politician and solicitor. A member of the Labour Party,he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney Central from 1970 to 1983,and was a minister in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson,James Callaghan and Tony Blair. He was European Commissioner in the Delors Commission (1985–1989). In 1990,he became a life peer,sitting on the Labour benches in the House of Lords until his retirement in 2018.
Horace Anthony Chang is a Jamaican doctor and politician who is both the current Deputy Prime Minister of Jamaica and the Minister of National Security. He was formerly the Minister of Water,Environment and Housing from September 2007 to December 2011.
Mia Amor Mottley,is a Barbadian politician and attorney who has served as the eighth prime minister of Barbados since 2018 and as Leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008. Mottley is the first woman to hold either position. She is also Barbados' first prime minister under its republican system,following constitutional changes she introduced that abolished the country's constitutional monarchy.
Tivoli Gardens is a neighbourhood in Kingston,Jamaica. Developed as a renewal project between 1963 and 1965,the neighbourhood continued to suffer from poverty. By the late twentieth century it had become a center of drug trafficking activity and social unrest. Repeated confrontations took place between law enforcement and gunmen in the neighbourhood in 1997,2001,2005,2008,and 2010.
Freundel Jerome Stuart,OR,PC,SC is a Barbadian politician who served as seventh Prime Minister of Barbados and the leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) from 23 October 2010 to 21 February 2013;and from 21 February 2013 to 25 May 2018. He succeeded David Thompson,who had died in office on 23 October 2010 from pancreatic cancer.
Kenneth Wykeham McNeill,MD,MP,CD is a Jamaican politician and 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.
Peter Murcott Bunting,MP was the fifth National Security Minister of Jamaica and the Former Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Central Manchester. Bunting was the General Secretary of the People's National Party,a position which he has held from January 2008 to January 2014. In the 2020 People's National Party leadership election,Bunting was the lead contender in the polls before the PNP's stunning defeat in the 2020 Jamaican general election,in which he lost his Manchester Central seat in Jamaica's parliament.
Phillip Paulwell is a Jamaican politician. Paulwell is the current Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kingston East and Port Royal and former Minister of Science,Technology,Energy and Mining STEM in the People's National Party administration,which has formed the Government of Jamaica following the party's electoral victory in the December 2011 General Elections.
L. Michael Henry,C.D.,M.P,is the Member of Parliament for Central Clarendon and is the longest serving Jamaican Parliamentarian with more than 30 unbroken years in the Jamaican Parliament.
Federal elections were held in the West Indies Federation for the first and only time on 25 March 1958. The result was a victory for the West Indies Federal Labour Party,which won 25 of the 45 seats in the House of Representatives.
Trelawny Northern is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Representatives of the Jamaican Parliament. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It was one of the 32 constituencies fixed in the new constitution granted to Jamaica in 1944. The constituency has featured in all 16 contested Parliamentary General Elections from 1944 to 2016. The current MP is Tova Hamilton,representing the Jamaica Labour Party,who has been in office since the 2020 general election.
Ralph Eugene Brown OJ,CD was a Jamaican politician who represented the People's National Party (PNP). He served twice as mayor of Kingston from 1974 to 1977 and again from 1986 to 1989. He was Minister of Works (1978–1980),and Minister of Local Government and Community Development (1989–1992).
