Veteran politician Moses Nagamootoo said he willingly put aside his interest in becoming Speaker because the principle was greater than the personality.
“I wanted no blood-letting on the floor of Parliament… This was the united AFC’s position,” Nagamootoo said on his profile page of the social website Facebook.
“I was nominated to be Speaker of the National Assembly but both the PPP and APNU …opposed my candidacy. PPP would not back off from its nominee Ralph Ramkarran, and saw me as enemy number one — colourfully described as a craw in PPP’s throat, Judas, neemak kharam, etc,” the status update said.
“However, APNU was willing to accept me but only on a rotation basis with their candidate Deborah Backer, once Ms Backer take[s] the first half of the term. We accepted rotation in principle but insisted that I take the first rotation.
“We disagreed but once we succeeded in getting APNU to accept in principle that AFC should get the speakership, I withdrew and suggested that either Raphael Trotman or Nigel Hughes be our nominee.”
Nagamootoo ended his statement by saying “In the end, Raphael Trotman was nominated by Khemraj Ramjattan and seconded by me, and became Speaker of the 10th Parliament.”
With a slim one-seat opposition majority, he said. “Guyana has made history… We have a unique new wave of democracy where power has shifted to the people!”
