Announced on the afternoon of May 5th, the results of voting for the new Central Committee (CC) of the PPP has evoked much interest.
While it isn’t clear how many people were nominated for the 35 seats on the CC and how many delegates actually voted, the votes were as high as 2308 for President Ali and as low as 703 for Indranie Chandarpal.
From the outset, the interest was in what would happen at the top. Would President Ali be able to surpass the omnipresent General Secretary and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo? Well he did. Mr Ali garnered 2308 votes – a mere 51 more votes than Mr Jagdeo, thereby nicely preserving the public images and balance of the two titans – one at Freedom House and one in the presidency.
Next in line following relatively closely behind was Zulfikar Mustapha at 2174. Mr Mustapha is the executive secretary of the party, the Minister of Agriculture and a former chairman of the all-important Region Six so those votes could be understood.
The number four position was a real puzzle: Vickram Bharrat at 2046, ahead of even Gail Teixeira, the grande dame of the PPP. Why would Mr Bharrat eclipse her and many others? He hails from Region Six but that could hardly be his cachet. He also holds the post of Minister of Natural Resources but is seen as only nominally connected to important decisions in the oil and gas sector. Indeed, he has been on the back foot over several fiascos such as the unsanctified engagement between a senior member of his ministry and ExxonMobil to whittle down the unjustified oil expenses red-flagged by the UK audit firm IHS Markit. Why then would Mr Bharrat be all the rage? Could it be that the voters were trying to accord full support for the position of the Government of Guyana on matters such as no renegotiation of the contemptible Production Sharing Agreement with ExxonMobil and were in full support of the unrestrained extraction of Guyana’s oil even though there is no Petroleum Commission in place?
What was another shocker was the showing of the former Minister of Local Government, Nigel Dharamlall. He corralled 1912 votes in sixth position, just 103 votes less than Ms Teixeira and more votes than Collin Croal and Anil Nandlall. What gives? It has long been known that Mr Dharamlall’s star has risen as a consequence of unremitting support from Mr Jagdeo. Surely, however, it reflects poorly on the party that nearly two-thirds of its delegates voted in favour of Mr Dharamlall who quit the government after shocking allegations of rape against him. It surely seems that the party wants to refurbish and rehabilitate his image. He is perhaps seen as having grass roots support and would therefore be important in the fast approaching election year. Was there however a pause for thought? Should the ladies of the PPP have raised their voices about the propriety of elevating to such rarefied standing a person who had a serious rape charge against him, dissolution of which had less to do with the circumstances of the matter than the influence of those in his corner? Shouldn’t there have been a screening of the applicants for positions on the Central Committee and a decision to exclude any person who may have had unresolved issues around them as serious as the ones levelled against Mr Dharamlall including the outburst about a dildo in of all places – parliament? As it is now, Mr Dharamlall is facing another round of serious charges and the party faces the existential risk of appearing to be dismissive of the great courage it takes for women to go public on these matters – an issue another member of the Central Committee, Vindhya Persaud is fully aware of.
Then there is the high-profile and very voluble Anil Nandlall at number nine, below Kwame McCoy and only two votes above Pauline Sukhai. Is it perhaps ambition that voters believed might need to be kept in check?
Frank Anthony coming in at 16 with only 1308 votes is quite a Sudoku. This is a former leader of the Progressive Youth Organisation, party royalty in a sense, and long a stalking horse on the CC list. He is also presiding over the building of several expensive state-of-the-art hospitals and myriad facilities across the country in addition to the pioneering of telemedicine. Did his name not resonate with some important constituency of the PPP?
Vindhya Persaud coming in at 21st is also eye-opening considering her ministerial portfolio, her lineage and the religious and socio-cultural organisations she spearheads.
Former President Donald Ramotar who also held the post of PPP General Secretary following the death of President Jagan in 1997 until 2011 came in at the unflattering position of 26th.
Interestingly, Clement Rohee and Mrs Chandarpal, two of the few remaining persons who were close to both the late Presidents Cheddi and Janet Jagan barely made it on to the CC at 34 and 35 respectively.
Though divining what resulted in these votes would be difficult to establish it has led to all sorts of allegations about how the voting was done. This prompted a full-throated assurance about the validity of the vote from Dr Randy Persaud, the advisor on constitutional matters to President Ali. In yesterday’s edition of Stabroek News, Dr Persaud, a delegate at the congress, said in a letter in response to another in the Kaieteur News: “The election was conducted in the most transparent manner possible. Numerous protocols were in place. I have no doubt that the PPP will provide the details about the process when asked. In the meantime, I can tell you that the letter in question is self-contradictory. It claims that a list went around, and several long-time and well-known PPP candidates’ names were missing.
“The truth is, all and I repeat, all those candidates were actually elected. As for the ranking of candidates as determined by the vote count, I can only say that the ballots added up. Moreover, it is not unusual in democratic elections that the ‘fortunes’ of repeat candidates … go up and down, even if by small margins. That is exactly what happened here”.
It is unclear how as an ordinary delegate Dr Persaud could be so certain about the rectitude of the vote. Perhaps in future, just to avoid any unpleasant allegations, all of the major parties should have their internal elections counted the same way as is done at at the national level and fully observed to short-circuit any possibly mysterious forces at work.
