Five new faces are among the 32 persons extracted from the PPP/C’s list of candidates to represent the party when the 10th Parliament of Guyana convenes later this month.
The PPP/C, in a letter dated December 5, has advised the Chief Election Officer, Gocool Boodoo of the names of its 32 members of Parliament and asked that the names be extracted from its list of candidates.
The PPP/C has lost four seats from the 36 it had in the 9th Parliament. In the Ninth Parliament the government was in charge of 37 seats including the 1 from The United Force. There were also three non-elected members of the House.
The new Members of Parliament, according to the letter, include: Minister within the Agriculture Ministry Alli Baksh, Junior Finance Minister Juan Edghill, Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud, Region 3 representative Cornel Damon, Region 6 representative Faizal Jafarally and Dr Vindhya Persaud, who is the daughter of PPP stalwart Reepu Daman Persaud.
The MPs awarded from the Geographical Constituencies are Minister within the Ministry of Local Government Norman Whittaker (Region 1), Komal Chand (Region 3), Bibi Shadick (Region 3), Indra Chandarpal (Region 4), Attorney General Anil Nandlall (Region 4) , Neil Kumar (Region 4), Education Minister Priya Manickchand (Region 5) , Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud (Region 6), Public Works Minister Dr Jennifer Westford (Region 7) and Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Region 9.)
The PPP/C’s National Top Up List of Candidates include Housing Minister Irfaan Ali, Culture Minister Dr Frank Anthony, Works Minister Robeson Benn, Rev Kwame Gilbert, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, Odinga Lumumba, Dr Vishwa Mahadeo, former Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir, Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, Dharamkumar Seeraj, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai, Gail Teixeira and Human Services Minister Jennifer Westford.
Former Education Minister Shaik Baksh, former Tourism Minister Manniram Prashad , Region 8 representative Albert Atkinson, one-time attorney general Bernard De Santos, Region 2 representative Mohamed Khan, Lloyd Pereira, Steve Ninvalle as well as party stalwarts Philomena Sahoye-Shury, Harripersaud Nokta and Shirley Edwards are among those MPs missing from the Ninth Parliament.
President Donald Ramotar has also given up his seat in the National Assembly as the president does not sit in the House.
