Young Jamaica, the youth arm of the Jamaica Labour Party, has expressed “absolute disgust” at Opposition Leader Mark Golding’s response to Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith’s defeat in the Commonwealth Secretary General race last week.

President of Young Jamaica, Rohan Walsh said though he is disappointed, he is not surprised.

“I am deeply disappointed that the leader of the Opposition and president of the People’s National Party, Mark Golding is using his political platform to sow political division instead of promoting unity on the international stage. The PNP and its leader are unfortunately using all opportunities for consensus to encourage disunity,” he said.

This follows Golding’s address at a PNP divisional conference on Saturday where he said the campaign ran by Johnson Smith was a waste of taxpayers’ money and divided Caricom.

“The Government decide to divide Caricom to push up a candidate for Jamaica to contest the Caribbean candidate… How strange,” Golding said, adding that Scotland is a Caribbean representative who was supported in 2015 by the then ruling PNP government.

Young Jamaica, however, echoed Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ sentiments that Johnson Smith ran an exemplary race.

It also accused the PNP of “playing partisan games with the lives of the Jamaican people” in regards to their response to the State of Public Emergency declared in St Catherine recently.

“In a time in which the criminal elements plaguing Jamaica are hell-bent on destabilizing the Jamaican state, Mark Golding, in his usual contemptuous style, has signalled that he is willing to hold the people of Jamaica hostage and aid in the undermining of the state in his desperate bid for power,” the press release said.

The group labelled Golding’s statements as “myopic, hollow, and caustic with the aim of furthering Mark Golding’s insatiable and wretched ambitions.”