New People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) presidential candidate Irfaan Ali yesterday said he does not see himself as anyone’s puppet or as an individual within his party but as part of a team to implement its programme on assuming the reins of government after the next elections.
“I see myself as a part of a team and not as an individual. I am part of a team, the People’s Progressive Party’s team, and that team will be widened. That team develops an agenda—a programme that I am committed to,” Ali, 38, told reporters yesterday in his first engagement with the press after his election.
Ali defeated fellow PPP member Anil Nandlall after securing the votes of 24 members of the party’s 35-member Central Com-mittee. Nandlall received the remaining 11 votes. Prior to the voting getting underway, the three other prospective candidates, Dr Frank Anthony, Dr Vindhya Persaud and Gail Teixeira, withdrew themselves from the contest.