Jamaica opposition wins landslide vote

KINGSTON, Dec 30, (AFP): Jamaica's leading opposition People's National Party has won a landslide election in a vote driven by concerns about crime, corruption and poverty on the picturesque Caribbean island. Preliminary results late Thursday indicated the left-leaning party had won 41 out of 63 constituencies, giving it a resounding majority and showing the door to Andrew Holness, 39, the country's youngest-ever prime minister. Within hours of polls closing, local media had called the PNP's victory, and PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller, the designated prime minister, delivered an acceptance speech vowing greater transparency. "You will know everything. We will never hide anything from you. Now you have a government you can trust," she told jubilant supporters. Miller, who became the first female prime minister in 2006 but narrowly lost a reelection bid the next year, promised a "partnership with you, the Jamaican people, a partnership with the private sector, the media and civil society."