…as political parties gear up for new polls
…hailed as superior candidate in likely crowded field

PRESIDENT David Granger will be the APNU+AFC Coalition’s presidential candidate for the next General and Regional Elections, top sources within the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change have confirmed.

The Guyana Chronicle has been reliably informed that the Head-of-State who is currently undergoing his fourth of five cycles of chemotherapy for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, in the Republic of Cuba, is in good condition to contest the presidency.

“The President is in good health. Yes, he has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, but he has been responding well to treatment. He is able to effectively manage this country, he is fit,” the source who requested anonymity told this newspaper on Friday. In fact, the source noted that the President, who has been in recent weeks making several public appearances is consistently improving, given his diagnosis. “As you know, he has to complete five rounds of chemotherapy, he is in his fourth round and his progress is consistent. So, there is no question about him being fit, health wise, to run,” the source added.

The source continued: “There is no question as to whether he is the candidate. He is competent, he is uncorrupted, he has integrity, his health is improving steadily and he has the interest of Guyana and Guyanese at heart. He is a genuine leader.”

While President Granger himself had said he would not “run away from service” as the coalition’s presidential candidate, he has not indicated that he is the candidate. At his last press conference in August 2018, the President said his run for a second term in 2020 is up to the parties in the APNU+AFC coalition. When asked by the media whether he will run for a second term, President Granger said, “I am a servant of my party, I am a servant of the partnership and I am a servant of the coalition and my duty is to serve and I would not run away from service.”

Granger, who is also the leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), was re-elected unopposed at the party’s congress last year. President Granger will likely come up against four other contenders for the presidency, including three newcomers from the Liberal and Justice Party; A New and United Guyana Party and the Federal United Party. His strongest test however will come from the main opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic, who are likely to name their presidential candidate this weekend.

FIT and READY
Minister of State Joseph Harmon, who is also General Secretary of the APNU back in December dismissed the suggestion that President Granger may not be the APNU+AFC presidential candidate for the upcoming general elections. “I think we have an excellent candidate in the President,” Harmon told Stabroek News. Minister Harmon’s statement followed former Member of Parliament, Charrandass Persaud’s vote in favour of Opposition, People’s Progressive Party’s no-confidence motion.

“He’s getting much better. I figure that by the time he gets back here, he will be in a position to resume his meetings,” Harmon told Stabroek News. Similarly, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams, SC hinted that President Granger will return as the presidential candidate. Williams said: “The President has big plans and projections for this country’s future with him being President of Guyana.”

PERSONAL INTEGRITY
In September, Alliance For Change (AFC) leader, Raphael Trotman indicated that his party supports the head-of-state for a second term, while citing his integrity as an important criterion. Executive member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Dr David Hinds, had also endorsed the President for a second term, stating in one of his columns that while he does not favour President Granger’s style of leadership, he does not see another candidate with greater potential among presidential hopefuls. “…So in such a situation incumbency rules. Granger’s strength is personal integrity, which in our political environment is a tremendous asset. If one were tempted to look elsewhere for an alternative leader, it would be hard to find one with the same degree of personal integrity. What he lacks in political nimbleness he makes up in that critical area. So, I am prepared from this distance, barring any big unforeseen political development to forecast that he would be the presidential candidate of any coalition,” Dr Hinds said in the column which appeared in the Kaieteur News. As per the Cummingsburg Accord of 2015 which created the coalition and subsequently the coalition government, the presidential candidate for the coalition comes from APNU, while the AFC is allocated the prime ministerial position.

Born 15 July 1945, President Granger is a retired military officer who served for a time as Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and subsequently as National Security Adviser from 1990 to 1992.

In 2010, he made a successful bid to be elected as the presidential candidate of the People’s National Congress Reform for the November 2011 general and regional elections. He was leader of the opposition in the National Assembly of Guyana from 2012 to 2015. Granger stood as the opposition coalition’s presidential candidate in the November 2011 general and regional elections, but was defeated. He was elected President in the May 2015 general and regional elections.

Born in Georgetown, Granger attended Queen’s College, Guyana’s elite and prestigious school like the former Presidents Forbes Burnham, Cheddi Jagan, Samuel Hinds and scholars such as Walter Rodney and Rupert Roopnaraine. After leaving Queen’s College, where he was a member of the Queen’s College Cadet Corps, Granger joined the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) as an officer cadet in 1965 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1966. He received his professional military training at the Army Command and Staff College in Nigeria; the Jungle Warfare Instruction Centre in Brazil; and the School of Infantry and the Mons Officer Cadet School, respectively, in the United Kingdom.
He trained in Britain, then Brazil, then Nigeria, and eventually became commander of the Guyana Defence Force in 1979 and was promoted to the rank of brigadier. Granger was appointed National Security Adviser to the President in 1990[1] and retired from military service in 1992.

PUBLISHER
Additionally, President Granger also founded the Guyana Review news magazine in 1992 and served as its managing editor. He has researched and published on military, historical and media themes, and is also the author of Guyana’s state media: the quest for control, and A Preliminary Study of Women Soldiers in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Granger has received various academic awards, including the President’s Medal for the best graduating student, University of Guyana; the Dennis Irvine Prize for the student who has made the greatest contribution to all cultural life of the university; Council of the University Prize; the Elsa Gouveia Medal of Excellence; the Guy de Weever History Prize; Earl Attlee History Prize; Mary Noel Menezes Award for History; Department of History Prize and others, from the University of Guyana. He also holds three national awards: the Military Efficiency Medal (1976), the Military Service Medal (1981), and the Military Service Star (1985) for distinguished military service.