President Dr Irfaan Ali has denied approaching Church’s Chicken franchise owner, Terrence Campbell, to be the prime ministerial candidate for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) at the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Campbell claimed, “You may find it hard to believe that I was the first person Irfaan Ali approached to be his prime ministerial candidate.”
President Dr Irfaan Ali
According to President Ali in a response via his social media page on Friday, “This is completely false. I never approached Terrence Campbell to be a prime ministerial candidate for me or the People’s Progressive Party/Civic.”
The Head of State admitted that he did have many discussions on political matter with the businessman in past but never offered him any positions. The PPP/C had selected former Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, as the PM Candidate to run alongside Ali at the 2020 elections and he is currently holding that post.
“During our time in opposition, I stated to him and others that the PPP/C is the only national party and that our policies are pro-people and pro-Guyana. At no time did I make an offer for him to be a prime ministerial candidate.”
Campbell’s claim on Thursday came after he was, once again, called out by Vice President (VP) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo over his duplicitous positions and criticisms of the PPP/C Government.
However, President Ali noted in this post on Friday that VP Jagdeo, who is also the General Secretary of the PPP, does not attack anyone but merely speaks about the facts.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo
“[Jagdeo] responds factually and politically to statements and issues. It seems that there is a belief among some in the country that they can attack the PPP and its leadership without expecting a response,” the Head of State asserted.
In the past, Jagdeo and Campbell have had public clashes on various issues.
Campbell, who has been vocal in his criticisms of the Government, particularly concerning the management of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), has recently been at the centre of a controversary where he was given over a $100 million tax write-off by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Campbell’s tax information was leaked to the media, exposing a tax waiver granted to him by GRA to the tune of $138, 835, 578.
Church’s Chicken owner, Terrence Campbell
During his press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo said that Campbell is “looking for relevance” with his constant criticisms of the PPP/C Administration.
“Nobody knows who he is and they don’t care too much about him. He’s a big tax evader… This was a guy under APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) that was allowed to evade all these taxes and keep people’s VAT money that they paid, for himself. That’s crooked behaviour; that’s corrupt behaviour,” the VP stated.
According to the leaked GRA document, Campbell wrote a letter of request to GRA on September 11, 2020 asking for a waiver of penalty/interest allegedly “accrued on the late submission of returns and late payments principal taxes, respectively.”
Previously, the businessman had accused the Government of leaking the documents of his $138 million tax write-off. But while the waiver was granted on September 25, 2020, VP Jagdeo insisted last week that the current administration, which took office in August 2020, was unaware of the write-off.
Nevertheless, Campbell has since threatened legal action over the leaked documents while GRA has promised an investigation into the release of the documents.
