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Presidential Candidate must be Central Committee member – Jagdeo’s new rule
Reports are that Leader of the People’s Progress Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo, is looking to alter the process for the selection of the party’s presidential candidate for the upcoming General and Regional elections.
Jagdeo, who is also the party’s General Secretary, was able to convince the Executive Committee that it would be best to bar anyone who is not a member of the Central Committee from contesting.
There has never been such a requirement before.
Charles Ramson has no chance
One Executive Committee member, who spoke on the grounds of anonymity, said that the Committee “generally accepted the proposal. Some members had reservations, but in the end it seems to be what we are going with. It is usual that we all accept the will of the majority.”
This new provision is likely to affect just one contestant—Charles Ramson Junior.
Other potential candidates are Dr. Frank Anthony, Gail Teixeria, Irfaan Ali, and Dr. Vindya Persaud, who are all Central Committee members.
The Central Committee of the PPP has 35 members. The 35 are to vote on who will become the party’s presidential candidate for the next elections. Before the change, the process was expected to go in a manner where nominations are made, and then each member of the committee votes based on his or her personal preference.
It has long been hinted that that Jagdeo is not in favour of Ramson being the party’s presidential candidate in the upcoming elections. In fact, he recently said that he will not vote for any “newbie” as presidential candidate.
The party has been putting off choosing its presidential candidate. Jagdeo has given a timeline that would have seen the party selecting a candidate “before the end of the year.” That was even before Guyanese knew they were going to be heading to the polls within three months. But now, with elections just around the corner, Jagdeo is now subscribing to new deadline—by the end of January.
It has long been hinted that Jagdeo is not in favour of Ramson’s candidacy. But Jagdeo became more blatant in his remarks recently. At a recent presser, he even referred to Ramson as a “weak candidate.”
Further, he said, “If you have newbies, then it’s much harder if you don’t have some Cabinet experience. I benefitted enormously by being a member of the Cabinet for a while, so I had experience as to what the issues were being debated; so we have a great pool of people who have had this experience and are still young,” he said.
PPP’s Leader and General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo
Ramson is the only one in the lineup that has never been in Cabinet.
This newspaper understands that while there are a few of the 35 who are in favour of Ramson as a candidate because he is “without baggage.”
However, with Jagdeo being against Ramson, the “newbie” was doomed from the beginning as Jagdeo is the most powerful force in the party and the majority is likely to support his choice. Irfaan Ali, the former Minister of Housing, is said to be Jagdeo’s choice.
And, at a recent presser, he stressed the need to provide “young leadership” for the country but was keen to say that this “young leadership” must have experience.
But, a force to be reckoned with would be former Minister Frank Anthony who is a favorite in the party.
At the last congress, Jagdeo topped the list of elected Central Committee Members gaining 718 votes. Anthony came in second with 620 votes while Teixeira came in third with 583.
The CCJ ruling on the two-term presidency is the only thing stopping Jagdeo from running as presidential candidate. Many, including party members, believe that since Jagdeo cannot be President, he prefers someone who will be his “puppet.”
Jagdeo addressed this concern at the recent presser. He said, “Anyone we choose, they will call my puppet. They used to call me Janet’s puppet. So that is okay.”
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