By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding said he would not be seeking re-election at the Jamaica Labour Party’s annual conference in November, and will step down as Prime Minister as soon as a new leader has been elected.

Golding was speaking to the Jamaica Labour Party’s Central Executive at its quarterly meeting in Kingston’s Belmont Road.

“The challenges of the last four years have taken their toll and it was appropriate now to make way for new leadership to continue the programmes of economic recovery and transformation while mobilizing the party for victory in the next general elections,” he said in a statement.

In a statement, the opposition People’s National Party said it called upon “the entire government to immediately resign and call general elections so as to resolve the crisis of governance in Jamaica.”

Updated Sep. 25, 2011 at 5:38 PM