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Criminal charges will not impact selection of Presidential Candidate – Jagdeo … Says Irfaan Ali will remain head of Public Accounts Committee
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) said the criminal charges being brought against their senior party members will not play a role in the selection of a presidential candidate to contest the 2020 elections.
The disclosure was made yesterday by the party’s General Secretary and Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, a day after 38-year-old former Minister of Housing, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, was hauled before the court where he was slapped with 19 fraud charges.
“These or other charges will not impact because we see a pattern of behaviour,” Jagdeo stated.
Former Minister of Housing, Mohamed Irfaan Ali at the Georgetown Magistrate Court.
The former minister is accused of defrauding Government of over $174M, by selling several plots of State lands, below the market value, to former ministers of the then PPP/C government.
Ali has been touted as a potential presidential candidate for the PPP. The charges were laid as the party prepares to embark on the internal process to select the presidential candidate. The party had announced doing so by the end of the month.
“We will ensure that whoever that candidate is, that that candidate fulfills every promise that we are making to the people of this country to reverse a lot of these hardship policies; to chart a course forward that involves everyone. People of every race and every political persuasion even if you vote against us; that they must be included in our vision,” Jagdeo stated.
Ali is the Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which scrutinizes expenditure and has been critical and at times harsh on public officers appearing before the committee.
There are concerns that Ali being before the courts on fraud charges would send the wrong message to public officers who have to account for taxpayer monies.
Jagdeo said, yesterday, that Ali will remain as the PAC Chairman as the party could face another dilemma of fielding MPs who are not before the court.
“He [Ali] will remain there because if we only succumb to any of these issues we wouldn’t have people in parliament. We would have had to take out four or five of our MPs already. That’s the plan of APNU (A Partnership for National Unity). I heard they even tried to influence our selection of candidates, but it is not APNU who is going to select the candidates or anyone else. It’s the PPP who would select the candidate. It’s not APNU,” Jagdeo noted.
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