Former President Donald Ramotar has stated that while neither he nor the PPP/C’s Prime Ministerial Candidate, Elisabeth Harper will be representing the party in the National Assembly, the list is indicative of the party’s move to transition to younger leadership.
At a press briefing at Freedom House yesterday, Ramotar stated that he felt an explanation was owed to the members of the media. He said “it was my personal view that the party should go into transition at this point in time and to go to transition to younger leaders to take us to future successes in the party.”
“I thought the party should have chosen a leader from among this generation of people, generally, the leadership of the party after thorough discussions they agreed with that position, but after thorough discussion they felt that they needed a kind of transition period to that and that is why we have this situation here where we now have comrade Bharrat Jagdeo to come as the leader of the Opposition”, Ramotar said affirming that Jagdeo had full support as likely Leader of the Opposition.
“This was a decision taken by the whole party…we need over the next five years to work towards transitioning the party into younger people’s hands,” he said, while downplaying questions as to why the party did not choose to make changes prior to contesting the 2015 General and Regional Elections.
The former president denied that the parliamentary leadership position was ever put to a vote, contending that it was more or less a collective decision brought about through continuous dialogue.
He was asked by members of the media if he was in agreement with the list of parliamentarians to which he responded “that is not important now. Like I said the party had taken a decision whether I agree with the decision or not that is it. I have made my point. I have always been a disciplined PPP member and I have made my points where those things were discussed.”
He added that “what opinion I have on the list I have expressed in the place that I am expected to express those opinions at. The decision has been taken that these people are going to go to the National Assembly and I am going to support that.”
Ramotar did acknowledge that there was a variety of opinions on the MP’s list. “In a political party like ours there will be a lot of discussion and debates and disagreements, but in a final analysis … we come to a decision that is final, so I will say there were people in our party that were probably not in favour of every single person who is on the list. We have [had] a lot of discussion on these things. It would have been totally unnatural if everybody would have agreed on everyone there, but that is the final decision of the party that these are the people they want to take to the parliament so I will do my best to support them in their work in the National Assembly,” he told members of the media.
Ramotar noted that the party was capable of making changes should the MPs be unable to do their work to the satisfaction of the voters. While he did not venture into when the party would submit its final list of MPs – the list was one person short of the 32 seats that needed to be filled – to the Guyana Election Commission for revision and gazetting he did say that he believed the party needed to be present in the National Assembly “the sooner the better.”
Ramotar was intensively questioned as to the party’s decision to keep former parliamentarians at the centre of damaging controversies.
Ramotar said that “when they were chosen on the list these things were not unknown and the party decided to put them on the list to go into the National Assembly,” noting that many of the allegations were not proven as yet.
The party has stuck with former Public Service Minister Dr Jennifer Westford who is currently embroiled in an investigation over the transfer of several state-owned vehicles into the names of several individuals including herself.
Former Health Minister, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, who was fired by Ramotar following verbal abuse of rights activist, Sherlina Nageer on April 20 outside of the Whim Magistrate’s Court, will also be occupying a seat in the 11th Parliament. Ramsaran was fired just 12 days prior to the May 11, General and Regional Elections after mounting public pressure.
Former Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall will also make a return the National Assembly. The former Attorney General was himself embroiled in controversy last October when he was recorded allegedly making threatening remarks against the Kaieteur News. The Director of Public Prosecutions in December recommended that no charges be laid in the matter while the Ramotar administration even after mounting pressure refused to discipline him or remove him from office.
The former President was asked about the inclusion of Ramsaran specifically as he had fired him. Ramotar refused to give a dissenting opinion and said that at this point it did not matter as collectively the PPP had decided on Ramsaran retuning to the National Assembly.
Stabroek News asked Ramotar what his departure from the centre stage of politics meant for his political career. He said “I am in the leadership of the PPP, I continue to be a member of the PPP, continue to make a contribution to the politics of this country. I will not seek office in the future unless something really dramatic takes place that will so demand from my colleagues that I do but that is where I stand.”
He said that the electorate had expressed support for the party itself and the list of candidates and not only himself and Harper and as such he did not see their departure from parliamentary representation as a disappointment. He emphasised that he would not be out of the fray and that his work with the party internally would still be indicative of working for supporters.
The former president expressed his gratitude over holding office for three plus years. “I am extremely proud of the fact that over the last three and a half years we kept our economy going forward in face of two important aspects. One is that we had a very unfavourable international climate and secondly for the first time we had a government operating where the opposition had a majority in the National Assembly and they really showed their whole position of being totally, complete obstructionists and tried their best to stop every progress that this country is making,” he told members of the media.
New additions to the list and relative unknowns to the political scene include Charles Ramson Jr, Adrian Anamayah, Alister Charlie and Gillian Persaud while the party’s secretary, Zulfikar Mustapha, former Permanent Secretary under the Local Government Ministry Collin Croal and Clive Jagan, the nephew of the late party founder Dr Cheddi Jagan, were also added.
Ramotar said that just as how he would be available, persons such as former Public Works Minister Robeson Benn and former Finance Minister Ashni Singh would be available to guide new MPs.
