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The Caribbean Island of Jamaica was initially inhabited in approximately 600 AD or 650 AD by the Redware people, often associated with redware pottery. By roughly 800 AD, a second wave of inhabitance occurred by the Arawak tribes, including the Tainos, prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494. Early inhabitants of Jamaica named the land "Xaymaca", meaning "land of wood and water". The Spanish enslaved the Arawak, who were ravaged further by diseases that the Spanish brought with them. Early historians believe that by 1602, the Arawak-speaking Taino tribes were extinct. However, some of the Taino escaped into the forested mountains of the interior, where they mixed with runaway African slaves, and survived free from first Spanish, and then English, rule.
Sir William Alexander Clarke Bustamante was a Jamaican politician and labour leader, who, in 1962, became the first prime minister of Jamaica.
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.
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.
Hugh Lawson Shearer was a Jamaican trade unionist and politician, who served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 1967 to 1972.
Pearnel Charles is a Jamaican politician with the Jamaica Labour Party who was the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
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.
Sharon Hay-Webster is a Jamaican politician. She was a member of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Jamaica from 1997 to 2012, representing the People's National Party. She came to international attention after the 2004 Haitian coup d'état, when she escorted Jean-Bertrand Aristide from his temporary exile in the Central African Republic to Jamaica at the invitation of then-Prime Minister of Jamaica P. J. Patterson.
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".
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.
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.
Norman Washington Manley was a Jamaican statesman who served as the first and only Premier of Jamaica. A Rhodes Scholar, Manley became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. Manley was an advocate of universal suffrage, which was granted by the British colonial government to the colony in 1944.
The Jamaican political conflict is a long-standing feud between right-wing and left-wing elements in the country, often exploding into violence. The Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP) have fought for control of the island for years and the rivalry has encouraged urban warfare in Kingston. Each side believes the other to be controlled by foreign elements, the JLP is said to be backed by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the PNP is said to have been backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba.
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.
Edwin Leopold Allen was a Jamaican politician, representing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). He served twice as minister of education (1953-1955) and (1962-1972). He was the first and longest-serving minister of education of independent Jamaica.
Ivan Stewart Lloyd was a Jamaican medical practitioner and politician, representing the People's National Party (PNP). He served as Jamaica's first Leader of the Opposition from 1944 to 1949, minister of education and social welfare from 1955 to 1957, minister of home affairs from 1957 to 1959, and was minister of health between 1959 and 1962.
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).
Clarendon North Central 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 is located in Clarendon Parish.
Clarendon North Western 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 is located in Clarendon Parish.
Saint Ann North Eastern is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Representatives of the Jamaican Parliament. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. The constituency consists of the north-east part of Saint Ann Parish. It is represented by Jamaica Labour Party MP Marsha Smith.
