Jagdeo says he’s unmoved by ‘puppeteering’ claims

Jan 21, 2019 News

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People’s Progress Party General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, on Saturday last, gave a play-by-play rundown of the process that got Irfaan Ali elected as the party’s presidential nominee.
He said that, when the process started a while back, the members met at the level of the executive committee of the party.
“We met and there was a unanimous agreement that we should ensure that the candidate should come from the 35-member central committee. The reason that the executive members preferred that, is that the central committee members would have had five years in the party to become a member. They would have also had to face a congress,” the party’s membership from across the country.

He said that the decision to restrict the pool of persons who were eligible to vie for the candidacy, the 35- member executive committee, was pertinent to the process because the successful candidate would have to carry out the party’s programme.
Compounding that reason, Jagdeo explained, is the fact that “this would be setting a precedent in the future,” so that prospective candidates for future elections could model themselves after that standard.
He said that if the eligibility criteria extended outside of the 35-member committee, “you could have 400, 500 people from all around the country interested in the candidacy, who would not have undergone the challenge of leadership.
After this decision was widely reported, there was a perception that Jagdeo made the decision to ‘squeeze out’ Charles Ramson Jr. Jagdeo had responded to this contention, and said that the decision was made to ensure the candidate had valuable experience in the political sphere.
“I spoke with Charles Ramson and I conveyed this decision to him. He has made a statement about that which has been widely reported.”
Pursuant to that decision at the level of the executive committee, Jagdeo said, a letter was issued to all the members of the central committee to either nominate people from the central committee, or express an interest in vying for the candidacy themselves.
“We had five persons who, either, expressed an interest or were nominated. We then decided that we will have each of these members make a presentation. This is what happened in 2011. All of the candidates who were contesting at that time made a presentation to the executive committee of the party.
This time around, the audience for the presentations was broadened from the executive committee to the central committee, meaning that 40 persons heard the presentations, five of which were not eligible to vote (candidate members).
“So the five presentations were made and we had over 20 hours of discussions in two days. We spent from morning all the way late into the night on both days, discussing at length, the presentation. At the end of the five presentations, I indicated to the members of the central committee that we will meet at the [executive level] to see if we could have a consensus candidate.
Jagdeo said that, because he preferred to have a consensus candidate, he had asked the five contenders if any of them wanted to withdraw before the elections were held, but no one withdrew.
“So, the next thing that we had to decide on was to convene the central committee, since no one was withdrawing. We had five candidates to hold the elections. So, [on Saturday morning last], we agreed that we will have the secret ballot.
The executive committee unanimously had agreed that Robeson Benn would be the returning officer. Jagdeo said that they all expressed “support in his integrity to conduct the elections”.
On the day of the vote, Jagdeo said that the three candidates, Drs. Vindhya Persaud and Frank Anthony, and Gail Teixeira decided to drop out immediately prior to the vote.
Those were stamped in front of everyone, out of all the members of the central committee. Not just the 35 but the candidate members who were there too, who don’t have a voting right.
[The candidate members] didn’t vote but they are part of the central committee.
“The ballots were distributed to everyone and then the people had an option to vote wherever they wanted. Then they placed it in a transparent box. Then, in front of all the members in the same room, they emptied the box and counted the ballots – there were 35 – and then they opened them and announced the names. These were tallied.”
At the end of the process, Anil Nandlall received 11 votes, while Ali received 24 votes, more than double that of his opponent.
At the end of the process, Jagdeo asked “Would anyone want a recount of any of this?”
The committee indicated that they were satisfied with the results.
“Subsequently, everyone congratulated Irfaan Ali. The four other candidates all stood up and they made speeches. They all congratulated Irfaan Ali and pledged support for the party to work as part of a team for a PPP victory.”
Though Jagdeo said that he was already inclined to vote for a specific candidate, he did not reveal who that candidate was.
He referred to the host of contentions that were raised during the campaign for the post. Some of these included the fraud charges against Ali, the perception that Ali and Nandlall were his puppets, the controversy over Ali’s qualifications, and the idea that the party would be split up because of disagreements on who the candidate should be.
He said that the perception that he is puppeteering Ali doesn’t bother him because he was also, at one point, the centre of similar speculation; that people referred to him as Janet Jagan’s puppet. He believes that, even if Nandlall won the election, the same issue would be raised.
He said that this, and other issues raised in view of the general public, caused a contentious campaign; that the contentious nature was “not directly caused by the candidates but by people who claimed they were supporting various candidates” who, he believes, are hostile to the PPP.
“They were making it look like the PPP would be doomed if one or another candidate is selected and categorical, and that you would have the splitting of the party by the candidates, etc. None of that happened. And I’m glad the campaign is over.”
Jagdeo said that all of the contenders from the presidential post will have prominent roles in the PPP’s campaign leading up to general elections.
As for negotiations on the Prime Ministerial nomination, the executive committee has not yet decided on a timeline for the selection process. Jagdeo noted that, though the central committee can change the custom of having that candidate come from the party’s civic component, no one has, so far, suggested such a change.
“We have been broadening the civic. There are thousands of people who want to come in. some of them want to be part of a formal civic. Some want policy promises and, with some individuals, you will see the quality of the people coming to us, how diverse it is, and who will be prominently featured on our campaign platform. So, we have a really good set of people, from which we can choose a good prime ministerial candidate.”

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