Bruce Golding, Prime Minister-designate of Jamaica, at the Jamaica Labour Party headquarters, Belmont Road, New Kingston, yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Orette Bruce Golding, leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), will today be sworn-in as Jamaica's eighth Prime Minister by Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall on the lawns of King's House.

Mr. Golding, who is expected to make some pivotal decisions immediately after receiving his Instrument of Office from the Governor-General, met yesterday with several key advisers at JLP headquarters on Belmont Road, New Kingston.

"There are a number of issues that I know I am going to have to deal with as a matter of urgency, so I have been in a series of meetings today (yesterday) with critical advisers," Mr. Golding told The Gleaner in a brief interview yesterday.

The Prime Minister-designate also met with British Parliamentary Under-secretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Meg Munn, who is on a working visit to the island.

Chairman of CARICOM and Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur; Arnold Piggott, Foreign Affairs Minister for Trinidad and Tobago; Dr. Michael Misick, Premier of Turks and Caicos Islands; Dr. Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM; and a Cuban delegation will be attending the ceremony.

Three representatives from the Nation of Islam will represent its leader, Louis Farrakhan.

Former Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke; Portia Simpson Miller, outgoing Prime Minister, as well as former prime ministers P.J. Patterson and Edward Seaga, are scheduled to attend the one-hour ceremony.

Those attending

Members of the diplomatic corps, the judiciary, ministers of religion and representatives of the private sector will also be among the thousands attending the event scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m.

Mr. Golding has indicated that he does not want to be addressed by the title 'Most Honourable', but instead has asked to be referred to as 'The Honourable' Prime Minister.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Golding will move swiftly to name a Cabinet and Ministers of State to conduct the business of the country.

Mr. Golding and the JLP defeated the Simpson Miller-led People's National Party (PNP) by 33 seats to 27, in the September 3 general election, the closest margin of victory in contested general elections in Jamaica since universal adult suffrage in 1944. The JLP effectively ended a streak of four consecutive election victories for the PNP, dating back to 1989.