3 nominated for PPP Prime Ministerial Candidate – Opposition Leader

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has begun the process of electing a prime ministerial candidate, and according to the Party’s General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, three persons have so far been nominated.

This was revealed during a press conference at the Opposition Leader’s Church Street, Georgetown office on Monday. When asked for an update on the selection process, Jagdeo confirmed that the process has since started.
“The discussions will start today (Monday),” Jagdeo said. “Last week I mentioned we’ll trigger the process. So, I arranged that. The discussions on the candidates, we’re going to be getting nominations in and start discussing names.
“The process is Members of Parliament (MP) and subsequently, the Executive and Central Committee. I have a meeting planned today (Monday) with both the Members of Parliament and the executives of the Party.”
He also explained that so far, at least three persons have been nominated for the position. He was also optimistic that a candidate would be selected in time for Nomination Day. According to Jagdeo, this is in sharp contrast to A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) and the seeming foot-dragging to name an official candidate despite AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan being chosen by his own party months ago.
“If we finish the issue before the end, definitely. But we are going to select a Prime Ministerial Candidate, unlike the other side. People are going to know who the person is before elections… if we conclude by Friday, by Sunday definitely. We have persons who are nominees already,” Jagdeo said.
It has already been reported that several figures from the Civic component of the Party have been nominated as potential PM candidates. These include former Junior Finance Minister, Bishop Juan Edghill, and former Army Chief-of-Staff, retired Brigadier Mark Phillips. A third nominee, University of Guyana lecturer Hugh Todd, is also believed to have been nominated.
Phillips served as Chief-of-Staff of the GDF from 2013 to 2016. He previously attended the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst in the United Kingdom and was Guyana’s non-resident military attaché to Venezuela. Phillips is also the holder of a Master’s Degree in Public Sector Management.
Meanwhile, Bishop Edghill served as Junior Finance Minister from 2011 to 2015. Before that, he served as Chairman of the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) and Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC). Edghill is currently a PPP/C MP, focused on public procurement issues.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) had previously announced in notices published in the media that Nomination Day for the upcoming General and Regional Elections is January 10, 2020.
In the notice, GECOM had called for all political parties contesting the 2020 General and Regional Elections to submit their symbol for approval. In the notice, GECOM had said that the approval of the symbols has to be done before Nomination Day. The deadline for the submission was December 13, 2019.
After weeks of persons questioning why he was not dissolving Parliament in accordance with the timeframe set out in the Constitution, President David Granger issued the proclamation for the December 30th dissolution of Parliament, on Friday last.