Last Tuesday the political parties submitted their lists of candidates to Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield. This is to all intents and purposes a two-horse race between the PPP/C and the APNU+AFC coalition, and the electorate looked on with interest to see which new names would find a place on those lists, and which had been omitted. Where the last-named party is concerned, their National Top Up List comprises 75 names, most of whom would be familiar from the 2011 election, including as they do, people like AFC Chairman Nigel Hughes; campaigner against trafficking in persons, Simona Broomes; and Forbes Burnham’s son-in-law and one-time Minister of Health, Richard Van West-Charles.
The most obvious newcomers are former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Dr Harold Lutchman, who is also the Representative of the List; Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green whose altercations with dogged Town Clerk (ag) Carol Sooba have been given considerable media coverage; and Amerindian rights activist from the Amerindian Peoples Association, Jean La Rose. In the case of the coalition list, however, who is on it is of far less interest than who is off it. One thing that is immediately apparent is the absence of former parliamentarian Vanessa Kissoon, who has her own grass roots following among the residents of Linden, many of whom, one imagines, might not be altogether satisfied with this decision. Where Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon is concerned, he is on the regional list of candidates, but not on the national one.
The immediate suspicion on the part of outsiders is that this is the consequence of the prolonged friction between Congress Place and the Linden branch of the party, which has resisted what it has seen as the impositions of the central executive in Sophia. For his part, however, PNCR Leader David Granger when asked about the omission of Ms Kissoon’s name from the list indicated that the party criterion of a two-term limit had been applied in her case. When pressed by Stabroek News as to whether the new criterion would now be made applicable to everyone, Mr Granger’s response was evasive at best. “We have a list of criteria,” we quoted him as saying, “and those criteria were applied because of the work ahead of us.” One would be inclined to think that any perception of unfairness in how the rules have been applied – no matter how mistaken that perception might be – would have reverberations in the Linden constituency.
Anyone looking for an abundance of new faces on National Top-Up Lists would have got more reward from the one handed in by the PPP/C than from that of its rival. The restless Mr Clinton Urling has finally found his home, it seems, with the current ruling party, while the beleaguered Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo, Rajendra Singh, has apparently decided to make the political relationship official. In an act of corporate solidarity, perhaps, he was joined by Managing Director of Guyoil Badrie Persaud. Dental Surgeon Clive Jagan will maintain the party’s connection with the family name, and also, it might be added, with the founder’s occupation, while the political grasshopper Mr Peter Ramsaroop has cemented his association with the PPP/C (he had endorsed the party in the last election) by becoming a candidate this time around.
In addition, not such a new face, although something of an unexpected one in the shape of former President Bharrat Jagdeo registered an appearance, despite prior public assurances that he would not be on the list because, in his own words, “I am not interested in going into parliament.” Whether he has changed his mind, or whether he is just providing padding to make up the 93 names on the list, only time will tell. Either way, his earlier asseverations about not seeking a constitutional post if the PPP/C wins, etc, will no doubt now carry less conviction with the public than they did the week before last.
As in the case of the coalition list, some names have not been included on the PPP/C one either, but these omissions are not altogether unexpected. Dr Leslie Ramsammy, who has been in poor health was not expected to put his name forward again, while Human Services Minister Jennifer Webster, who resigned her current portfolio effective April 30 for health reasons, has also been excluded. The names of Labour Minister Nanda Gopaul and Housing Minister Irfaan Ali are only found on the regional lists, not the national one.
Aside from the unanticipated naming of Ms Elisabeth Harper as the PPP/C’s prime ministerial candidate, which announcement had come well before Nomination Day, the real surprise of the list was the youth candidates, of whom there were far more than the coalition managed to muster on their side. But it was not their age which attracted attention; rather it was another quality entirely: quite a few of them were the children of existing or former senior PPP cadres.
For Shyam Nokta, the son of one-time Minister of Local Government Haripersaud Nokta, it was the second time around, but on this occasion he was also joined by Alexei Ramotar, the son of the President; Tsitsi Luncheon, Cabinet Secretary Roger Luncheon’s daughter; Rima Rohee, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee’s daughter; Colleen Teixeira-Khan, Chief Whip Gail Teixeira’s daughter; Rabindranauth Chandarpal, son of the late Presidential Advisor Navin Chandarpal and former Minister in the Ministry of Labour Indra Chandarpal; and Charles Ramson Jr, son of the former Attorney-General Charles Ramson.
President Ramotar told reporters before presenting the list: “I feel pretty good today,” but the voters for their part were a bit perplexed. Was the PPP so short of fresh faces that it had to fall back on the close relatives of senior members? Was this a sign of the party’s lack of appeal beyond the perimeter of Freedom House, or was it a case of a form of nepotism? Certainly the perception will be of the latter, and while no one wants to exclude talent from anybody’s list – and one presumes that the second generation of the party is well educated – the PPP should have been far more sensitive to the appearance of creating a hereditary governing class, which goes against everything they used to believe in.
It is clear from its advertisements that the party has taken note of the plethora of corruption allegations – although whether the measures it is proposing to confront these are adequate or appropriate is another matter. Be that as it may, it seems it did not occur to it that the list in and of itself undermines any claims it is making about confronting the problem of corruption, since nepotism is a form of corruption. Now it runs the risk of voters simply dismissing it, and not taking it seriously. What they want to see is meritocrats, not mandarins.
