KINGSTON - Legislators from Jamaica's main opposition party voted strongly in favor of keeping their embattled leader despite calls for his removal after
  three decades in charge.

  Opposition members of Parliament voted 17-3 in an emergency meeting this week to keep Edward Seaga, 73, as head of the Jamaica Labor Party, Seaga
  spokeswoman Prudence Kidd-Deans said. Party members called the secret ballot an attempt to discount media reports of a rebellion within the party,
  which Seaga has led since 1974.

  The vote provides a much-needed boost for Seaga, who has faced mounting criticism since his party's fourth straight defeat to the governing People's
  National Party in 2002 general elections. Some party supporters have called on the former prime minister to step down as leader, accusing him of an
  autocratic, heavy-handed style.