PM defends Cabinet size
Published:Friday | January 6, 2012 | 6:48 PM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has defended the size of her executive, which comprises 19 Cabinet ministers and eight junior ministers.
"I have added some young persons so that they can begin to understudy the seniors. What I am trying to do now is succession planning," Simpson Miller said.
Including Simpson Miller, the size of the executive is 28 members.
Simpson Miller was critical of former Prime Minister Bruce Golding for having appointed and maintained a 31-member executive.
It was made up of Golding, a deputy prime minister, 16 cabinet ministers, 11 junior ministers and two parliamentary secretaries.
Today, Simpson Miller told journalists that this is a different kind of Cabinet.
"I am dealing with succession planning. And, if you check my size and the number of people that won elections for the People's National Party, it is quite different from Mr Golding's," she said.
The PNP won 42 seats in the House of Representatives to the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) 21 seats.
In 2007, Golding's JLP won 32 seats to the People's National Party's 28 in the then 60-seat House.
daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com