The PNC’s ponderous political bandwagon now appears to be gathering some measure of momentum in its search for a presidential candidate for later this year. As it has gone along it has picked up a few late entrants in the race, specifically former Finance Minister Carl Greenidge and an Attorney at Law named James Bond. Greenidge, if he secures the presidential nomination and goes on to win the presidency itself will be the third President of Guyana – after Hoyte and Jagdeo to have held the Finance portfolio before ascending to the presidency.
Bond, at least at this stage, appears to be the darkest horse in the field. Amid the heat of the controversy over his alleged sacking by the CARICOM Secretariat at the behest of the government and his own pronouncements about what he says has been his treatment at their hands, Greenidge, one imagines, would relish running against whomsoever the PPP/C puts forward as its candidate.
Now that the Burnhams and Jagans dwell in the land of the departed there are no longer any presidential shoo-ins. These days, it is a matter of hard graft to win the nomination and you have to wonder whether the PNCR’s five will have the stamina to last the pace of two hectic campaigns. For the moment at least the internal party battle for the PNCR’s candidate appears to have been informed by a generous measure of civility. All of the candidates were duly rolled out in Berbice recently and that went well. At the end of the day, however, everyone wants to be President – or at least presidential candidate – and it would be interesting to see whether the hopefuls may not actually begin to compete more vigorously for public attention and whether or not the eventual losers in the race for the candidature will, thereafter, throw their full weight and the weight of their supporters behind whoever becomes the candidate.
