AFC to sport new faces in 10th Parliament

Dec 05, 2011 News

– Nigel Hughes not on list of MPs

The 10th Parliament is expected to be constituted shortly and its National Assembly will see the appearance of several new faces in the corridors of the legislative arm of the Administration.

Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes

For the first time in Guyana’s history since The United Force first entered the House of Assembly, that party will not have a representative, having not secured enough votes to take a seat.
The Alliance for Change (AFC) now takes its second stint in the National Assembly after it secured seven seats, two more than they had in the last parliament.
Their proposed Members of Parliament thus far are party Chairman and Presidential Candidate of the just concluded election, Khemraj Ramjattan; party Leader, Raphael Trotman and former Peoples Progressive Party/Civic MP, Moses Nagamootoo now AFC Member.
The AFC secured a significant number of votes in Region 6 and as such the Representative from that Region will be Dr Veerasammy Ramaya.
Trevor Williams who heads the party’s youth arm will also find a place in the National Assembly.
While the other two positions have not yet been confirmed, Party Executive Member Cathy Hughes has been touted for one of the seats.
The final seat allocated to that party is also expected to be filled by another female, ensuring a gender balance is represented.
Cathy Hughes’s husband, Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes will not be negotiating in the House.
Nigel Hughes had campaigned alongside the AFC and had come in for an uncouth tongue-lashing on more than one occasion from no other than former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Hughes, however, was not on the party’s List of Candidates and as such will not be holding a seat in Guyana’s 10th Parliament.

Moses Nagamootoo

Jagdeo, while on the campaign trail, had delivered several scathing attacks on several members of the Opposition including Hughes of the Alliance for Change (AFC).
Jagdeo had stopped just short of implicating the Attorney in the 2003 murder of Buxtonian, Brian Hamilton, but did say that he suspects the attorney was present at the time of the killing.
The 35-year-old father of one was shot and killed by one or more gunmen as he sat in the office of his Buxton Public Road gas station.
Hughes had debunked the claims made by Jagdeo but this did not stop the former head of state from repeating the venomous statements in the process painting him as an attorney for ‘drug-dealers.’
Jagdeo did not seek to disguise his attack on Hughes, vowing that under his Presidency, Hughes would never be appointed a Senior Counsel.
Jagdeo also accused Hughes as the person on the AFC’s platform peddling racism. “They (AFC) got a man called Nigel Hughes to do the dirty work…he has gone on their platform and peddling the race line.”
The President disclosed that the administration knows Hughes as a man that has lobbied, “a lot of people to become Senior Counsels…I (Jagdeo) appoint Senior Counsels…He will never be a Senior Counsel once I am President and I don’t know whether Donald Ramotar will ever give him because he is a drug dealers’ lawyer.”