The People’s Progressive Party will next Thursday begin the process to select its Presidential Candidate to contest the 2020 general elections and Executive Committee member Gail Teixeira is most likely to throw her hat into the ring.
Asked yesterday if she will be contesting, Teixeira said, “Most likely.” She had earlier in the year given a similar intimation.
Teixeira told Stabroek News that the party took the decision yesterday at its executive meeting held at Freedom House, Robb Street, Lacytown, to begin the process of selecting the Presidential Candidate next Thursday when the Executive Committee will meet again.
“We will commence the process next week. After the motion of no confidence (in the National Assembly on Friday). The process will remain the same. The Executive Committee will review the list of candidates and the Central Committee will decide.”
The Central Committee will vote in a secret ballot for the presidential candidate. Ask how many candidates are expected to vie for the candidacy, Teixeira said, “That we will know in greater detail next week.” Many names, she said, were being touted as published in the dailies.
They include former Minister of Housing Irfaan Ali, former Minister of Culture Dr Frank Anthony, Dr Vindhya Persaud and former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall. Charles Ramson Jnr has also expressed an interest in the candidacy.
“These are exciting times for the party and the country,” she said.
Noting that the party will not be able to name the candidate before the year ends as PPP General Secretary and Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo had said as late as Monday, Teixeira said, “We won’t have a name before Old Year’s Day because going through the process is most important.”
She added, “There is no magical thing about 31st December. It is not like we will be guillotined if we do not reach that date.”
At literally every press conference, he has hosted in recent months, Jagdeo has been asked when the party will name its presidential candidate. At one time, he had said, the candidate would have been named before the November 12 Local Government Elections (LGEs). Following the LGEs, he said, the candidate would be named after the budget debate and consideration of the estimates. On Monday, he said at a press conference, the party would have decided yesterday, “whether it makes sense to do it just before or just after the no-confidence motion.”
The no confidence motion brought against the government by the PPP/C is to be debated on Friday in the National Assembly.
