Surprising the Alliance for Change (AFC), which he once supported, businessman Robert Badal plans to run for the presidency of Guyana with chartered accountant Nigel Hinds as his Prime Ministerial (PM) candidate in a soon-to-be-launched party called Change Guyana.
Badal, the proprietor of the Pegasus Hotel and Guyana Stockfeeds Limited, had previously been close to governing coalition partner AFC and the news of the new party last evening caught key party executives off guard.
Hinds, who heads Nigel Hinds Financial Services, is a frequent public commentator on a variety of matters. He had at one time been floated as a possible PM candidate for the PPP/C.
Describing itself as `A new and bright political party on a mission to ignite economic and social development for the benefit of all Guyanese’, the new party is scheduled to be launched at the Pegasus Hotel on October 29th. The symbol for the party is a light bulb.
Badal, who recently launched a major expansion of his Kingston hotel business, was formerly Chairman of the Guyana Power and Light Inc under the APNU+AFC government.
Hinds was formerly the Chairman of Guyana Water Inc under the current administration before resigning over differences with management of the utility.
Contacted by this newspaper via his mobile phone last evening for comment on the launch of the party, Badal asked “How do you know about that?” After he was read the contents of a flyer which advertises the party, the businessman would neither deny nor confirm. Instead, he said that he will hold a press conference sometime next week.
“That comes as a surprise. That just comes as a surprise,” AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News last evening when contacted.
He queried if this newspaper would have “checked” with Badal and when he was answered in the affirmative, he paused and then said, “Well, that just comes as a surprise is all I could say.”
AFC co-founder and executive Raphael Trotman also expressed surprise but said that he wishes them well as he knows firsthand how difficult it would be for newly formed parties.
“All I can say is that I wish them well. Launching a new party in a highly polarised environment is not going to be easy. It wasn’t easy for us in the AFC in 2005, and the political landscape has certainly become more complex and difficult since,” Trotman said.
One AFC executive, who did not wish to be named, said that “it is okay to say that I am shocked at Badal’s move…”
“I don’t know what else to say but that this is quite the shocker. It seems that everyone just wants individual power and I am not sure now who is thinking about this country or about themselves. He (Badal) has always been an ardent supporter of the AFC and to hear this tonight from Facebook and social media, without hearing it from him first is what surprised me,” the longtime executive said.
“No, I don’t know of a fallout. If there was I didn’t hear anything of such. You know you would hear one one thing, here and there about this person going over here or there but not serious really. It is just surprising,” the executive added.
With the proclamation of March 2nd 2020 as the date for general and regional elections, several new parties have launched plans to contest the polls.
The AFC has been riven by accusations of having capitulated to its main coalition partner APNU combined with a poor showing at the November 2018 local government elections and internal divisions, and Badal’s departure will likely be seen as a further blow to the party. The AFC is now locked in talks with APNU on areas like the prime ministership and Cabinet positions.
When Badal had endorsed the AFC back in 2011, he called the party “the most credible option” to take the country forward.
“Today we have not only a clear choice but a responsibility to ourselves and to each other to support a change in government,” Badal said at an AFC news conference. “I am a businessman not a politician, but as a businessman and a citizen of this country it is my duty to say something is wrong when it is wrong, free of any fear of intimidation or victimization,” he had said.
Badal had said that an AFC-government led by Ramjattan, Trotman, Moses Nagamootoo and a dynamic team of young professionals would “restore decency and integrity to government, ensure transparency and accountability to Guyanese, and halt the accelerating web of corruption.”
During the latter years of the PPP/C government, Badal had been one of the few voices in the private sector critical of the government.
In 2010, he criticised the then government for agreeing to invest in the Marriott Hotel. His comments had drawn the ire of then President Bharrat Jagdeo.
And since the coalition gained office in 2015, the PPP/C’s criticisms of Badal intensified and the party claimed that he had been given preferential treatment because of his closeness to the AFC.
The sale of the Guyana Stockfeed shares to Badal was used as an example where government received less than $150,000 in total for the sale of its shares.
Both the PPP/C and its former Attorney General Anil Nandlall had expressed concern that there was no mention of how the purchase price for these shares were arrived at. “There was no mention whatsoever that a Certificate of Valuation was used to determine the purchase price of these shares. The shares were sold at $25, each,” Nandlall had said.
