The main opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) says it will soon start the process to select a prime ministerial candidate to contest the March 2 general election next year.
PPP/C General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo said that the party is focused on the election and that while it has already named former Housing Minister Irfaan Ali as its presidential candidate, the process to select a prime ministerial candidate will begin “within hours”.
‘We have not engaged anyone. We plan to trigger the process in a matter of hours and the … process includes nominations from the different groups, our MP, members of the Central Committee, etc; and once the nominations are in, there will be an intense period of discussions jointly with the MPs and then at the party level, and we will select a candidate.
“So we have not received any nomination as yet because we have not triggered the process, but that will be done shortly,” said Jagdeo.
Nomination Day is set for January 10, 2020.
Late this week, the leaders of the Alliance for Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) signed a new Cummingsburg Accord, paving the way for the two groups to contest the March 2020 election as a coalition, as had been the case in 2015 when they defeated the PPP/C.
Under this new agreement, the AFC will only get 30 per cent of the seats secured by the coalition in the National Assembly, based on a new 70:30 ratio agreed upon with APNU.
The formula will also guide the allocation of seats at the level of the Regional Democratic Councils. Under the old accord, the formula was 60:40.
President David Granger has already been selected as the coalition’s presidential candidate, while the prime ministerial post will be held by the AFC as was done under the old accord.
CMC