Amid speculations that Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud could be a late nominee to vie for the position of presidential candidate of the People’s Progressive Party, the PPP Executive Committee on March 3 announced that it is moving ahead with the process of nominating its candidate for this year’s Regional and General Elections.
Persaud has repeatedly denied that he was interesting in the position.
In a statement, the committee said that, “the interested potential presidential candidates were given another opportunity on March 2 to expound on subjects such as national unity, economic policies, youth development/involvement, and governance”.
At this session, which was chaired by executive committee member Dr Roger Luncheon, members of the executive committee were given the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarifications from the hopeful candidates.
The committee reported that this exercise at the level of the executive committee will continue, as the body prepares a proposal for subsequent consideration by the central committee.
The five presidential hopefuls are Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, Party General Secretary Donald Ramotar, Presidential Adviser on Governance Gail Teixeira, and party stalwart Moses Nagamootoo.
In 2010, the party had decided to stick to its old process of selection of the presidential candidate. This process allows for nomination of interested individuals to be considered for the position, deliberations at the level of the executive committee, and subsequent approval by the central committee. The name of the approved candidate would then be announced to the membership through regional conferences.
However, some of the candidates had expressed favour in the secret balloting process instead. President Bharrat Jagdeo later offered his opinion that there were certain dangers with the secret balloting process, including the possibility of candidates promising people “others things to get them to vote for them”. This, he said, would lead to something that the party will not tolerate.
Meanwhile, the current process is the same one that was used in the selection of the late Dr Cheddi Jagan, Janet Jagan, and serving president Bharrat Jagdeo, to contest previous general elections.
