There is no major surprise on the APNU+AFC list of persons who will represent the governing coalition in the 11th Parliament.
Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield told Stabroek News yesterday that the coalition has submitted a list of 33 persons who will be sworn in when the 11th parliament opens and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is reviewing it to ensure that it is in compliance and the names submitted are from the coalition’s List of Candidates submitted prior to the May 11 general and regional elections.
He acknowledged that the list was submitted past the 15-day period under the legislation governing the submission of the list which has to be gazetted prior to becoming official. President David Granger assumed office on May 16.
Those who hold the 27 Ministerial and Junior Ministerial posts in the Granger cabinet will go to Parliament. Both the AFC and APNU have ditched some persons who represented their parties in the last parliament.
New to parliament for the AFC will be Noel Holder, Minister of Agriculture; Dominic Gaskin, Minister of Business and David Patterson, Minister of Public Infrastructure who did not serve in the 10th Parliament. Rounding off the AFC representatives are Audwin Rutherford, Michael Carrington, Haimraj Rajkumar from Region 2 and Charrandas Persaud representing Region 6. Raphael Trotman who served as Speaker in the last Parliament will return now as an AFC MP in the coalition.
The AFC’s Veersammy Ramayya, June Marcello and Trevor Williams will not be returning to Parliament.
APNU’s new representatives to parliament include Simona Broomes, Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection; Nicolette Henry, Minister within the Ministry of Education; and Jaipaul Sharma, who left the House after a confrontation with former education minister Priya Manickchand last year and who has been sworn in as Minister within the Ministry of Finance under the new administration.
Rajcoomarie Bancroft from Region 8, Jermaine Figueira and Valerie Patterson both from Region 10 are also named as Parliamentarians for APNU. Richard Allen from Region 1 who stepped down for health reasons, John Adams of Region 3 and Jennifer Wade representing Region 5 will return to Parliament.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan will also go to parliament.
APNU has dropped Christopher Jones, James Bond, Desmond Trotman and Renis Morian.
The People’s Progressive Party/C has yet to provide GECOM with its MPs list. The party’s General Secretary Clement Rohee has said that the party has yet to decide on whether or not they will even acknowledge their position as the opposition in the National Assembly. The party will maintain its 32 seats out of the 65 seats in the House.
During the party’s weekly press briefing on Monday, Rohee disclosed that consultations are ongoing and gave no indication as to whether former presidents Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar would appear as MPs. He had said that given the amount of persons on the candidates list, many of whom are not party members, extensive consultations will need to begin at the grassroots.
Rohee said that all persons need to feel a “general consensus and a certain comfort level” when the final list is prepared and presented.
The party’s General Secretary said that the PPP is looking to formulate a comprehensive and total package prior to disclosing any information.
Freedom House was abuzz with party members who were in attendance to continue with discussions including party stalwart and former Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon and former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds on Monday.
Rohee said that the process was much like a free flow of discussions that will be taken into consideration prior to a preliminary list being comprised. At that point, this preliminary list will be ventilated and members and components of the civic division can say whether they have issues with any potential MPs. Rohee said that this process would occur multiple times until there is overall satisfaction.
He also said that additional work needs to be done considering the party’s success at the Regional Election level; the party won the chairmanship of all regions except 4, 7 and 10.
