THE NEXT PRIME MINISTER OF GUYANA WILL BE A WOMAN

Nov 07, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The Alliance For Change has influenced the PPP’s choice of candidates for next year’s general and regional elections.
Almost immediately after the AFC announced the ticket of Khemraj Ramjattan and Sheila Holder, there have been signs coming from within the government that the PPP will follow a similar pattern.
When the President of Guyana left to attend the funeral of the late Prime Minister of Barbados, David Thompson, the Prime Minister was also out of the country and therefore two new persons were required to be sworn in to act as President and Prime Minister.
Instead of Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee and Agricultural Minister, Robert Persaud, and to everyone’s surprise, the persons sworn in as acting President and acting Prime Minister were Dr. Jennifer Westford and Dr. Ashni Singh respectively.
This is a most interesting development and shows that the campaign is fully in swing and that the PPP is responding to the developments within the Alliance For Change.
The AFC ticket is nothing to shout about. There is nothing exciting about a Ramjattan-Holder ticket. In fact, serious questions are going to be asked as to why if the AFC wanted a female Prime Ministerial candidate it did not go for someone who is fresh and new on the political scene.
Sheila Holder has been around and is not going to be a vote-getter in the next elections. This is not an indictment against her abilities as a parliamentarian, but the fact is that the AFC is not coming up with anything to excite the population and therefore may be forced to rely on its middle-class support base, including a great many professionals who are frustrated with the PPP.
Both Holder and Ramjattan have been tried before. So they are not new to the political hustings.
The ticket is not going to create waves, but it has already forced the PPP to respond.
The AFC has forced the PPP to think hard, and think into the future, about what could be the implications of having both the presidential and prime ministerial candidate being males.
While the PPP hardly has to wonder about losing to the AFC, it has to be cautious about the support that the AFC can pull from the middle class. It may also not wish to be seen as contesting both the Presidency and the Prime Ministership with two individuals who are both males.
The PPP may be mindful that this could be something that affected its image and while it is not likely to lose next year’s elections, it may wish to avoid the distraction and discomfort of having two males in the top position.
This may explain why Ms. Jennifer Westford has been sworn in as President. The PPP may have read through the lines and accepted that if a male is going to be the presidential candidate, it would need a female Prime Minister.
It just shows the unpredictable nature of politics. One day it is assumed that the competition within the PPP is all about certain political heavyweights, literally speaking.
The next day, we see a completely different complexion with the party being put in a position whereby it has to respond to the AFC’s gender and ethnic balance.
It is now therefore likely that we are seeing the last in office of both President Bharrat Jagdeo and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.
It was expected that Hinds, the longest serving Prime Minister of Guyana, would have given way to someone else, but since the position of Presidential candidate for the PPP was still open, all the attention was focused on who was likely to emerge.
The AFC has now virtually settled the candidates for the PPP. The Presidential candidate is now virtually decided, with confirmation a mere formality, and it seems now that instead of Robeson Benn becoming the next Prime Minister of Guyana, it will be Jennifer Westford.
President Jagdeo is now on the last leg of his second term, and by January, would hardly be the focus of attention in the country.
All eyes and ears would be on the PPP’s presidential candidate and there will be no time at all for the man who has been the longest serving President in the history of Guyana.
As for the longest serving Prime Minister, he too will depart into the political sunset and make way for his successor. His stay has been extended because it makes no practical sense to let him go now, but he will most likely not be around for the next elections.
Come next year we will have a new President and a new Prime Minister.
But there is also another side to this issue, for it now seems that if Jennifer Westford becomes the next Prime Minister of Guyana, it would mean that the outgoing President would have two formidable allies in both of the top positions in the country and therefore could well continue to wield influence behind the scenes.

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