Bruce Golding (right), Edward Seaga (left), JLP Leader, and Audley Shaw, a deputy leader, give the party's 'V' sign while singing the party anthem yesterday, after a press briefing at JLP headquarters, Belmont Road, Kingston. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer

GRASSROOTS SUPPORTERS of the Jamaica Labour Party flocked its Belmont Road headquarters in Kingston yesterday, to welcome Bruce Golding, the former chairman, who was officially presented as a member of the party's election campaign team.

The excited supporters crowded into the conference room where a press briefing was scheduled to clarify issues relating to Mr. Golding's return to the JLP.

There was constant cheering and expressions of love for Mr. Golding, who along with Edward Seaga, the party leader, will this next week lead two separate campaign teams across the island to inject life into the party's election campaign.

"With the re-entry of Bruce, we will not only move forward, but we will gallop forward," Mr. Seaga said after welcoming Mr. Golding back into the party.

Mr. Seaga disclosed that after Nomination Day, scheduled for Monday, September 30, he will be heading a campaign team that will scour the northern parishes while Mr. Golding will join forces with the party's deputy leaders in campaigning in southern parishes. The two teams, he said, would work the island, ending in a mass meeting in Montego Bay on October 13, three days before the October 16 general election.

OFFICIAL PRESENTATION

This weekend, the party will be holding a meeting in May Pen, central Clarendon, where Mr. Golding will officially be presented on the JLP's platform. The party's mass meeting scheduled for Nomination Day in Half-Way Tree Square, will also feature Mr. Golding .

Yesterday, Mr. Golding wasted no time in turning his attack on the governing People's National Party, which he criticised for what he said was a poor economic record, manifested in joblessness and a growing debt burden.

"I feel strongly that the PNP can't rectify those problems. The PNP has made itself the problem and now I am back here to work with you to get rid of that problem," Mr. Golding said.

He told journalists that the agreement worked out with the JLP for his return, was not perfect but reflected a willingness on the part of both sides to find a way forward.

Also, Mr. Golding justified his decision to return to the JLP, seven years after he left and founded the National Democratic Movement (NDM). He said the principles of the NDM, which centre on fundamental constitutional reform, remained relevant but he had taken the decision to pursue them through the JLP.

Yesterday, the executive of the NDM in a news release blasted Mr. Golding for his return to the JLP.

"The meeting noted that while Mr. Golding has used every opportunity to assure the NDM and the public at large that he would not be returning to the JLP, he has nevertheless mysteriously done so without communicating even a single word to the NDM executive, of which he is still a member," the statement said.

Mr. Golding dismissed statement, arguing that his decision had been communicated to the NDM, through businessman Wayne Chen.

Mr. Golding, asked whether he would leave the JLP again if it failed to implement the terms of the agreement which had been worked out, told journalists: "I give you the commitment that God will not allow that to happen."