…PM says former president battling for survival

Saying that Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo faces a tough road ahead, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo said the PPP boss was “pitch-forked” into power and is now “fighting for survival.”

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday, the prime minister said Jagdeo, who now serves as opposition leader and general-secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), has been involved in all PPP governments since he entered the political arena.
According to the prime minister, the former president is “trying to find a way to explain his indecent obsession with serving a third term, even though from time to time he would feign opposition to a third term.”
On Saturday, Jagdeo in a statement issued by his party said whatever the outcome of the ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the presidential term-limit case, he will remain the general-secretary of the party and play a formal part in the “next PPP government”.

“Unlike the 2011-2015 period, where I played no formal part in the PPP administration, I intend to be a formal part of the next PPP government as we resume the implementation of plans to build a better country of which all our people can feel proud,” said Jagdeo.
The CCJ will next Tuesday hand down its decision on whether Guyana’s presidential term limit is unconstitutional.
However, the prime minister begs to differ. He told the Guyana Chronicle that Jagdeo has not discouraged the concept of a third term, while noting that same surfaced circa 2008 when a motion was unsuccessfully put before the National Assembly for him to serve a third term.
“He had not discouraged it… so saying that he would remain in the leader of the PPP and is available to serve in a future government is a preemptive excuse for not chopping down this campaign for a third term,” said the prime minister.
“I also believe that he has a personal interest in remaining general-secretary of the PPP…. He is fighting for survival! and campaigning ahead of time as Guyanese would say ‘he don’t’ want to lose guana and cutlass’—i.e. he shouldn’t be disqualified from serving as president and also being displaced as general- secretary of Cheddi Jagan’s party. What I know is he has a tough battle ahead,” Nagamootoo told the Guyana Chronicle.

Meanwhile, the PPP general-secretary Saturday said multitudes of supporters of the PPP/C and even across the political divide made contact with him and raised concerns, including the public statements of those in government in respect of a particular outcome.
“As a result, I am moved to publicly assure that whatever the ruling is, I am and will remain the general-secretary of the PPP,” he said.
Jagdeo said too that he will continue to “spearhead the party’s struggle for a better life for all Guyanese,” while adding that emphasis will also be placed on the working-class people, the poor and under-privileged, while striving for racial and national unity.
Moreover, he said every effort will be made to secure victory at the upcoming Local Government Elections this year, along with Regional and National Elections to be held in 2020.

“Ours is a party not built on personalities but on policies, all designed to create a better life for our people, and forge racial, ethnic and class unity. I remain committed to these policies and causes and will continue to struggle with the party to achieve them,” the former president who served two terms said, while noting that he is humbled by the “overwhelming confidence” placed in him by citizens.