PPP Executive Committee to decide on PM candidate soon – Jagdeo

…work on manifesto already commenced

Now that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has already elected its presidential candidate the focus is now on who will the party choose as its Prime Ministerial candidate as it completes its ticket in preparation for the constitutionally mandated March 2019 General and Regional Elections.
According to the party’s General Secretary and Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, the party’s PM elected would be determined by the Central Executive Committee. The process is expected to commence as early as next week, Jagdeo said at his weekly press conference on Thursday.
“When the executive meets, we will not meet this week, so probably next week we will start the discussion. We have put that on the agenda what timeline we need for this to resolve…We have to go through that process and that takes time and that is why we have to move it along simultaneously. Now that the presidential candidate has been sorted out the Prime Ministerial candidate will be sorted. I will put it on the agenda next week, but I do not know what timeline the Executive will set, but I will definitely put it in the agenda,” Jagdeo informed.
He stated that at this time the party is simultaneously compiling its lists since the regional structures have been submitting names for those to be added on the regional list. He noted that the process is an extensive one since it includes vetting hundreds of names to ensure that those who make it on to the list are reflective of what the party stands for.
Jagdeo noted that the PPP slate is one of the most diverse slates, adding that it is committed to promoting diversity and representing all of the people. When asked about speculations that he may have influenced the January 19 vote that saw the CEC electing former Housing and Water Minister Irfaan Ali as its presidential candidate, Jagdeo noted that the process was a democratic one, which by no way was influenced.
“We had a secret ballot and 35 members voted and Irfaan Ali got 24. I have one vote and I spoke subsequently about the qualities of Irfaan Ali of how he will make a great president. He would not be a President who is aloof. I never publicly stated my preference…” Jagdeo noted.

Jagdeo has earlier indicated that based on the formula the PM candidate will come from the Civic side party. However, Jagdeo noted that the Central Committee does have the power to change the methodology used to select the prime ministerial candidate. According to the General Secretary, however, no one has indicated that the model of selecting the prime ministerial candidate from the Civic side of the Party needs changing.

Manifesto
On the issue of developing the ideal manifesto to lead the party into the elections, Jagdeo said that the Manifesto Committee was primarily the core committee, but that has since changed and expanded to approximately 20 persons.
“The Manifesto Committee is not the Executive of the party. It was core group and now it grown, and we have assigned responsibilities to people so now it has grown to include about 18-20 people for various sectors and we have already been receiving views,” he explained.
He notes as the party goes ahead and prepare its manifesto, it intends to include all of the Guyanese people by meeting with representatives from various areas to ensure that the issues affecting their development are addressed.
Giving an insight of some of the intended tasks, Jagdeo said that rolling back taxes would be a big part of the PPP’s plan of action if elected to office following the elections.
“Reversing harmful decision this Government has taken and resuming the social programmes and so on will happen when the PPP resumes office and we have already started talking about what we will be doing in the future because clearly job creation is important,” he said.
“You heard our presidential candidate even gave a number because we have looked at this internally and that is entirely doable. The 50,000 new jobs in five years and we have started looking at the reality…” the former president said.