Former head of the Government Information Agency and long-time member of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Beverley Alert is set to replace the party’s co-founder Raphael Trotman in the National Assembly when his resignation takes effect.
Current Leader of the AFC Khemraj Ramjattan told the media, yesterday, that Alert has been named by the AFC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) as the next person in line for a parliamentary seat.
On Wednesday, the AFC announced that Trotman is expected to resign from the National Assembly next week. The party said that Trotman had indicated before the staging of its National Conference, back in June, that he would not be available for nomination as he would be resigning mid-term in the life of the present Assembly to allow for rotation and space for new leadership training. It also clarified that Trotman’s departure from the National Assembly does not mean he is exiting as a member of the NEC.
During the party’s press conference yesterday, Ramjattan said “I want to let it be known that it is going to be Beverley Alert [who will replace Trotman].”
When asked about the criteria used to select Alert, Ramjattan explained that the last NEC which selected the current nine Members of Parliament (MPs) had gone on to identify other names as well. He said that Alert’s name came in tenth and she was marked as next in line.
“We made a decision then that it [Alert’s ascension to Parliament] would be in the event of any person dropping off…and it had to do with being you know the various criteria that made a Ramjattan, a David Patterson and Cathy Hughes become parliamentarians. So Beverly passed all those tests,” he said.
Chair of the AFC, Cathy Hughes said that Ramjattan would now write to the Leader of the APNU+AFC List of Candidates former President David Granger for him to commence the process of naming Alert as the next candidate to the National Assembly.
Alert is also a member of the NEC and served in several communications posts during the APNU+AFC stint in government. She was notably on the Board of Directors of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited and served as head of GINA.
