…but every nomination will be treated on its own merit – Jagdeo
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Bharrat Jagdeo has pointed out that the party has not decided on its Prime Ministerial (PM) candidate, adding that former Army Chief of Staff, Mark Phillips, like any other member of the party, can be nominated for that post.
Jagdeo explained that the PM candidate will be selected from the civic component of the party and noted that there is a possibility that Phillips can be selected for this position.
“I believe that he is a great person, I know of his skills, in terms of finance and his security credentials and I have heard a lot about his integrity. He would be a welcomed addition to our team, I made it clear to him that the process we would follow. I don’t know if anyone of our members will nominate him. It is very likely that his name could be nominated too because members of the central committee, the members of Parliament, anyone could nominate a person and we will treat each name on its merit and then make a decision,” Jagdeo told a news conference.
He explained that Phillips was welcomed into the folds of the party.
“Let me make it clear, we are not trading positions…the PPP will go into these elections making no commitments, we are working on a platform, a platform that is inclusive, we want progress for all Guyanese regardless of their race, their religion, wherever they live and we want to make sure that our people are safe in their homes, good quality education, and our oil resources work for everyone. We believe that there are many people who have great skills within our ranks and who will be part of our team through the Civic and also many individuals who we will have to tap for their skills,” the Opposition Leader said.
The PPP/C General Secretary added that under a PPP Government, from 2020, there will be numerous opportunities for persons to obtain jobs, not only in the Government.
“Right now we are talking about thousands of young professionals trained to manage to create a national core of managers for the oil and gas sector, thousands of opportunities, so we are not going to be engaged with any Party or individual with trading individuals….Mark Phillips said I want to be a part, I like the vision, I like the programme for the country, he is a patriot too and he wants to be a part of the team. When we come to selecting the PM candidate, the names are going to come up, we are going to have a discussion, and then we will make a selection but it is not dependent, him being a part of the team, is not dependent on that”.
Meanwhile, on Friday, former Chief of Staff, Gary Best, at the Peoples National Congress press conference said that Brigadier Phillips worked under his leadership in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and displayed good qualities and possessed integrity.
“Mr Phillips is a gentleman and he will decide what he wants to do with all his qualities but I will say in no uncertain terms that when he worked with me he had to display those qualities. I demanded of it, I got those qualities out of him, in the GDF he did a good job,” the PNC member said.
