Khemraj Ramjattan available for Prime Ministerial candidacy

Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan.

Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan on Sunday said he would accept the nomination for the prime ministerial candidate for the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition to contest the next general elections.

“I would certainly accept the nomination,” he told reporters briefly at the official opening of the People’s National Congress Reform’s (PNCR) new West Demerara regional headquarters.

The PNCR and its dominated A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) have already endorsed President David Granger to again lead the coalition into a second term at elections that could be held this year as a result of the passage of a no-confidence motion last December.

At the conclusion of its recently held National Executive Committee meeting, the AFC had issued a statement endorsing the retention of the Granger-Nagamootoo ticket for the next general elections.

AFC Leader Raphael Trotman was quoted in the Sunday edition of the privately-owned Stabroek News newspaper as saying that to do otherwise is to give credence to the opposition People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) position that the Granger-Nagamootoo-led administration did not perform efficiently.

For his part, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has been touting the success of the government with himself and Granger at the helm.

“It is important at this time for, the party from which I have come, the Alliance for Change (AFC), to express confidence in their Prime Minister and to express this confidence that those people who voted for us are assured of our continued leadership,” the Prime Minister was quoted in a bulletin issued by the government’s Department of Public Information (DPI).

“We have not betrayed our constituents, we have done nothing that would have curtailed our mandate. This government was brought down by a single act of treachery, by someone who crossed the floor, by someone who betrayed the voters,” he expressed.

Moreover, the Prime Minister said, “I am very pleased with the leadership of the AFC, that they have found it necessary and important now to embrace their state leaders, the president and the prime minister; to embrace the David Granger and Moses Nagamootoo combo. It is good for Guyana to have this image of a leadership that is strong, mature and experienced.”

Ramjattan on Sunday declined to offer his personal opinion although he said the AFC is a liberal democratic party that allows leaders such as Trotman to make known their own positions. “Obviously what Raphael is indicating is that is his personal opinion and we got a lot of personal opinions in a liberal democratic party,” he said.