Eight new faces in Parliament for PPP/C

Dec 07, 2011 News

– Nadir, Kwame Gilbert, Vindhya Persaud included

– no place for Baksh, Prashad, Ramson

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has announced its list of 32 Parliamentarians and this time around, there will be eight fresh faces, including the five new Ministers that were sworn in on Monday.
According to a list released by government, Vindhya Persaud, daughter of former Agriculture Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud, will join Reverend Kwame Gilbert; Carnel Damon, a farmer from Dartmouth, Essequibo Coast; Faizal Jafarally, a social worker, and Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, both from New Amsterdam, Alli Baksh, former Chairman of Region Two and now the Junior Minister of Agriculture; Bishop Juan Edghill, who is the new Junior Minister of Finance; and Ganga Persaud, the new Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, as the newcomers in the PPP/C’s team when the 10th Parliament is convened later this month.
Manzoor Nadir, the former Minister of Labour whose party, The United Force, failed for the first time since the ‘60s to win a seat in Parliament, will return to serve under the PPP/C. Nadir was one of four former Ministers who lost their places in the current 20-member Cabinet sworn in Monday by President Ramotar.
As was expected, there will be no place in the PPP/C’s Parliament for the former Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh and Tourism Minister, Manniram Prashad. Former Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, Charles Ramson, was also not featured as part of the list submitted by the party.
Other than the above changes, the PPP/C Parliamentarians will essentially remain the same.
Following Thursday’s declaration by Dr. Steve Surujbally, Chairman of the Guyana Elections Elections (GECOM) that the PPP/C won 32 seats, newly sworn-in President Donald Ramotar, on behalf of his party, wrote the commission on Monday asking that list of persons be issued appointment instruments.
According to a government release, Ramotar in his letter said that “having received copies of the declaration by the Guyana Election Commission on the number of seats allocated, based on your calculations, to the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic List of Candidates for the General Election held on November 28, 2011 and in pursuance of Section 98 of the Representation of the People Act, Cap. 1:03, I hereby, as Representative of the forenamed List of Candidates extract the following names to be issued appointment instruments as Member of the National Assembly.”
Under the National Top-up List of Candidates, 19 names were submitted. These include 13 Ministers.
Among this list were Irfaan Ali; Dr. Frank Anthony; Robeson Benn; Bishop Juan Edghill; Reverend Kwame Gilbert; Prime Minister Samuel Hinds; Odinga Lumumba; Vishwa Mahadeo; Manzoor Nadir; Ganga Persaud; Dr. Vindhya Persaud; Dr. Leslie Ramsammy; Dr. Bheri Ramsaran; Clement Rohee; Dharamkumar Seeraj; Dr. Ashni Singh; Pauline Sukhai; Gail Teixeira and Jennifer Webster.
Under the Geographical Constituencies, there were 13 names. These included Norman Whittaker, Region One; Alli Baksh, Region Two; Carnel Damon; Region Two; Komal Chand, Region Three; Bibi Shadick, Region Three; Indranie Chandarpal, Region Four; Mohabir Anil Nandlall, Region Four; Neendkumar, Region Four; Priya Manickchand, Region Five; Faizal Jafarally, Region Six; Robert Persaud, Region Six; Jennifer Westford, Region Seven and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Region Nine.
While the PPP/C has submitted its list of candidates to be verified as Members of Parliament (MPs), the opposition parties, Alliance For Change and A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) are still to do so.
Parliament, the legislative arm of the government, is constitutionally due to be convened no later than January 28th, 2012.
For the first time since acceding to power in 1992, the PPP/C will not have control of Parliament as it only garnered just over 48% of the votes cast during the November 28 polls.
The present administration will have to depend on either or both of the opposition AFC and APNU to pass legislations or even the National Budget.
The three parties have been mum on whether negotiations are on to form a possible power-sharing structure.
President Ramotar has already said that although his Cabinet is formed, it is not too late to explore cooperation with the opposition parties.
APNU has already expressed its unhappiness over the counting of the ballots from the elections and yesterday, several persons aligned with APNU were shot with rubber bullets after clashing with police in downtown Georgetown.
On Monday, APNU’s President Candidate, David Granger, and senior party official, Joseph Harmon met with Ramotar and his advisors, Dr. Roger Luncheon and Gail Teixeira.