MANCHESTER, Jamaica — President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce (MCOC) Wendy Freckleton has officially announced her resignation to embark on a political career with the People’s National Party (PNP).

At an Extraordinary Members Meeting at the Golf View Hotel on Monday Freckleton said that former Prime Minister of Jamaica PJ Patterson and Central Manchester Member of Parliament Peter Bunting are among the persons with whom she met in arriving at her decision.

Sources say that Freckleton will be seeking to contest the Knockpatrick Division in the next Parish Council election.

The seat is now held by Councillor Cleon Francis of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Freckleton was in her third consecutive term as president of the Chamber.

A news release on Tuesday said that the Chamber’s Assistant Director of Workforce Development and Education Janice Brooks will succeed Freckleton.

A banker by profession, Brooks is currently the branch manager of First Global Bank in Mandeville.

She was appointed as interim president for the rest of the 2013-2014 administrative year which ends on March 6, 2014.

“I have been associated with the Chamber for over twenty years and have been a member since 1997…. I have learnt a lot over the years and have made many good friends. The Chamber for me is a way of life. History, I am sure, will be kind to me as I try on a different shoe and take on the role of representing people at a different level,” Freckleton said in her presentation.

-Alicia Sutherland