PM candidate “not essential”; just “window dressing” – WIN Executive

Executive of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, Odessa Primus, has dismissed growing public concern over her party’s delay in naming a Prime Ministerial (PM) Candidate for the upcoming September 1 General and Regional Elections, claiming that naming a candidate for the role is not essential and amounts to mere “window dressing.”
In a candid telephone interview with the Guyana Times on Saturday, Primus expressed confidence that WIN, which is led by United States (US)-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohammed, is poised to win the elections in a landslide. However, she pushed back against criticisms of the party’s readiness, particularly surrounding the vacant Prime Ministerial spot on their ticket. “We don’t have a deadline, but we are going to be coming to a conclusion on this very soon. The PM candidate is not something that needs to be stated by law; it’s just window dressing, as you would know,” Primus stated.
She went further to question the political weight traditionally ascribed to the PM’s office in Guyana’s governance structure.
“In a Government, there’s no Minister who is more important than the other, whether it is Prime Minister or otherwise. So I am saying that it is not something that is essential to put out there,” she said, adding that: “We want to ensure that our candidate makes a difference, so we more or less don’t have a white elephant sitting there. We don’t plan to make that mistake.”
While Guyana’s Constitution, under Article 101, mandates that a PM be appointed by the President from among elected members of the National Assembly, it does not require parties to publicly name their intended candidates before elections. However, it has become customary for parties to do so as a show of transparency and preparedness, signalling to voters the makeup of the potential executive leadership.
Failure to disclose a PM candidate creates questions of trust, governance, and internal party coherence, with the omission of such critical information limits voters’ ability to assess a party’s full leadership team before heading to the polls.
However WIN is the only party contesting the polls that is yet to name a running mate. Several other contesting parties, including the Alliance for Change (AFC), Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), and the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP), have also not yet announced their Prime Ministerial picks.
By contrast, both major political forces, President Irfaan Ali’s People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and Aubrey Norton’s A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) have already made their choices public. The PPP/C has retained Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips as its candidate for PM, while APNU has named Juretha Fernandes to the role.
Despite the growing scrutiny, Primus maintained a confident posture about WIN’s momentum, and is even predicting victory by a landslide.
“Things are going fantastic over here. We are going to be winning the next elections, so we’re at a place where we are preparing for the new Government to take over at this juncture,” she said.
“As relates to campaigning, we will continue to campaign because we want to win on a majority, but our hearts and focus have now shifted to preparing for taking over the Government.” As election day nears, pressure is expected to mount on parties yet to name a PM candidate, with voters likely to demand clearer signals about the leadership teams they are being asked to support.