Shaggy, Tanya Stephens Congratulate Mark Golding Following Victory At PNP Polls

Shaggy and Tanya Stephens are two members of the Dancehall community that have come out to share messages congratulating Mark Golding on his win at the polls in Saturday’s election.

Golding is the new president of the People’s National Party (PNP) following a leadership race that culminated in 96 percent of the party’s 3,300 delegates coming out to vote.

A big surprise to many is that dancehall megastar Shaggy supported Golding in his bid for party president.

Who knew that Shaggy was a Golding supporter?

Probably no one.

But the Grammy-award winning entertainer on Saturday (November 7) stepped up out in his orange hat with the iconic hashtag “Go with Golding” throwing his support behind the party’s new president, after the results had been announced.

“Congratulations to Mark Golding!! On being elected the leader of the opposition’s: People’s National Party!! @markjgoldingmp,” said Shaggy on his Instagram page, shortly after the results of the internal party election were made known.

While Shaggy seems to have kept his preference for one candidate over the other super private, others in the usually non-politically aligned music business have been less discrete, with Spice seeming to have endorsed Lisa Hanna, while artiste manager, Shelly-Ann Curran, didn’t hold her tongue in endorsing Golding.

Yet others like Tanya Stephens while not necessarily endorsing Golding, took to social media to openly trash Hanna who she noted got a safe PNP seat but almost lost it.

Stephens also following the results of the election, took to social media to thank the delegates who voted in support of Golding.

When asked by an Instagram user if she was a “comrade”, Stephens responded that she was a “Jamaican”, indicating that she had no political preference.

55-year-old Golding is the sixth leader of the PNP, he was appointed to the Senate in 2007 by Portia Simpson-Miller and later went on to serve as Minister of Justice.