JAMAICA: GOVERNMENT DEFEATS NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L KINGSTON 002065 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CAR (RANDALL BUDDEN) E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/17/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON KCOR JM SUBJECT: JAMAICA: GOVERNMENT DEFEATS NO-CONFIDENCE MOTION REF: KINGSTON 2020 Classified By: Charge d'affaires, a.i. James T. Heg for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) On October 17, Parliament debated for eight hours a no-confidence motion brought by Bruce Golding, leader of the opposition Jamaica Labor Party (JLP),against the ruling People's National Party (PNP),in response to the controversy surrounding the USD 500K in political funding donated to the PNP by Dutch oil trader Trafigura (reftel). The motion was defeated, as expected, by a vote of 33 to 23, with Members of Parliament (MPs) voting strictly along party lines. ¶2. (U) Golding opened the debate and stated that the opposition believes that the Trafigura controversy is enough to cause the country to loose confidence in PSM and her government. Golding suggested that the USD 500K "gift" from Trafigura was carried out in a clandestine and surreptitious manner and that the entire affair was sleazy and incestuous. Golding argued that respectable democracies hold their governments accountable and respectable Parliaments secure that accountability. ¶3. (U) Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller (PSM) spoke during the debate; however, rather than addressing the issue head on, she charged that the no-confidence motion had been brought to deflect attention from a censure motion against JLP MP Karl Samuda brought by the newly appointed Minister of Information and Development, Donald Buchanan. Buchanan replaced Colin Campbell as Information and Development Minister last week after Campbell resigned due to the fall out over the Trafigura scandal. ¶4. (C) On October 18, PolOff spoke to JLP Member of Parliament James Robertson regarding the aftermath of the no-confidence vote. Robertson stated that the PNP had "weathered the storm," but that the invincibility of PSM has cracked. Robertson also stated that he thought his party should have focused their attack on Philip Paulwell, Minister of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, rather than on PSM since there was no way that the "most popular prime minister in Jamaican history was going down, but the PNP may have given up Paulwell." According to Robertson, the earliest that he predicts elections will be called is June 2007 after Cricket World Cup. ¶5. (C) Comment: No information has yet surfaced to directly implicate PSM in the scandal. The JLP will certainly try to keep the issue on the front-burner. It has knocked PSM's march to a likely victory this fall in early elections off stride. The Prime Minister now, baring any further revelations, will likely choose to delay elections and allow this scandal to blow over and be forgotten by Jamaican voters, as so many have in the past. End Comment. HEG