May 04, 2019 News
Photo: Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo (left), and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan
Moses Nagamootoo, Guyana’s current Prime Minister, was nominated to serve in that post by the Alliance for Change, after an agreement laid out in the Cummingsburg Accord saw to it that the AFC would have the right to name the ruling coalition’s prime ministerial candidate.
In 2015, when the coalition won the General and Regional Elections, Nagamootoo assumed the position, and has been serving for four years. He has also temporarily assumed the duties of the President when President David Granger left the jurisdiction.
But the AFC’s chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, has signaled his intention to challenge Nagamootoo for the post. The two ministers are both former members of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) who, dissatisfied with its leadership, left to work on nurturing a credible, political third-force.
During an AFC press conference, yesterday, at the Centre for Change, Ramjattan said “I have already indicated my interest.”
He is prepared, however, to vie against other members of the AFC for the post, as well.
“There are others, I’m certain, who have indicated their interest,” noted the party’s chairman
“And so, it is going to be interesting, and it is good to have – inside of political parties – the regular rivalries between leaders.”
He added that it is common for such rivalries to exist in a party structure, and told the press that, in the US, the Democratic Party currently has about nine candidates vying for the presidential nomination. He said that the situation would be the same for the US Republican party, and other national democracies, as well.
“The Prime Ministerial candidate is generally [decided on] through an election which will be made at a national conference. I rather suspect that, at our next national conference, there will be recommendations [toward] who will be prime ministerial candidate.”
That conference will be held sometime in June, Ramjattan said.
Ramjattan had only briefly acted as Prime Minister when the President left for treatment in Cuba, earlier this year. Asked whether he thinks he will be up to the task, if so elected, he responded categorically, “Of course, I think I will be!
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