BREAKING: Jagdeo is new PPP General Secretary

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo was Saturday elected as General Secretary of his People’s Progressive Party (PPP), a move that appeared set to see him consolidate power among a new guard of party leaders.

Sources confirmed that the 35-member Central Committee voted to replace long-time PPP member, Clement Rohee at their first Central Committee meeting since the recent  PPP Congress.

At that Congress, Jagdeo had said that it was time that the party focussed more on what is good for Guyana rather than ideological “isms”.

The socialist-oriented Marxist-Leninist party has over the years, while in government from 1992 to 2015,  embraced market-oriented polices rather than a dominant role of the State in economic development.

Following the 2013  Congress, then PPP General Secretary , Donald Ramotar had handed over the post to Rohee, citing the need to focus more on presidential duties.

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Those elected to the Executive Committee are Anil Nandlall, Clement Rohee, Irfaan Ali, Roger Luncheon, Gail Teixeira, Zulfikar Mustapha, Donald Ramotar, Frank Anthony, Neil Kumar, Shyam Nokta, Clinton Collymore, Collin Croal, Dharamkumar Seeraj, Pauline Sukhai and Bheri Ramsarran.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has requested an ‘urgent’ meeting with President David Granger to reconcile “any differences of opinion which may exist on this issue,” as it relates to appointing a new chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
On Monday, by way of a letter, President Granger informed Jagdeo that the six nominees submitted for the post is unacceptable and urged him to submit a new list.
In his letter to the Opposition Leader, the President said that the CV’s of the persons whose names were submitted “do not seem to conform to the requirements of Article 161(2)” of the Constitution, which states that only persons who are Judges, qualified to be Judges, or former Judges or, either a court having unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matter or, a court having jurisdiction in appeals from any such court.
However, the Opposition Leader in his response to the President on Tuesday noted that the President’s interpretation of the law is different from his [Jagdeo].
“In the circumstances, I hereby request that Your Excellency clarify what you interpret the qualifications are of the persons to whom Article 161(2) of the Constitution refers. I am of the considered view that an urgent meeting will immeasurably assist in reconciling any differences of opinion which may exist on this issue,” Jagdeo wrote.

Jagdeo had to make his move now for another reason.  The APNU+AFC government is performing dismally.  Its true corrupt and dictatorial tendencies have taken over.  The economy is poorly managed and things are getting from bad to worse.  The coalition is daily growing more and more unpopular.  This can make it easy for the PPP to retake government.

Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, is questioning the haste by Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Carl Singh, to complete the hearing of the appeal on whether former President Bharrat Jagdeo
Basil Williams, Attorney General and Minster of Legal Affairs can run for a third term.
The matter came up yesterday in the Court of Appeal, where Justice Singh announced that he will hand down a ruling in the matter on February 15, although there has been no arguments or submissions by the parties involved. Instead, the parties have been given one week from yesterday’s date to present written submission.
The AG believes that Justice Singh wants to hand down a ruling in the matter before he demits office on February 23, having reached the age for retirement.