Samuda takes backbench

FLAMBOYANT JAMAICA Labour Party politician Karl Samuda, who refused to accept a transfer in the Bruce Golding-led Cabinet from the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce to the Ministry of Energy and Mining, on Tuesday took his new seat in Gordon House with the backbenchers.

Samuda, who was formerly seated among the senior Cabinet ministers on the front benches on the Government side in Parliament, now joins former minister of Mining and Energy James Robertson, who resigned from that post in the wake of revelations that the United States Embassy had revoked his visa, on the back benches

Minutes before the official start of the sitting of the House, a small committee comprising government members of parliament and House leader Andrew Holness appeared to be deliberating on the seating arrangement on the back benches.

At the end of the brief discussion, it was decided that Samuda would be seated beside controversial St Catherine South West MP Everald Warmington.

Other persons seated on the back benches are Tarn Peralto, deputy speaker, Joseph Hibbert, Derrick Smith, Ernest Smith and Franklyn Witter.