May 10, 2016  Source

PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee yesterday strongly denied reports of infighting among the party’s leadership and asserted that it is united and stronger than ever.

Rohee also declined to offer comments on him possibly seeking to be the party’s presidential candidate for the 2020 general elections.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Rohee dismissed as “speculative” a report published in Monday’s Stabroek News, which. The report, headlined “PPP executives jockeying for top position,” said a clash had erupted among the party’s leadership and that a key party congress due this year is likely to be deferred as officials tussle to consolidate their positions.

“The party wishes to point out that such stories about the PPP are not new; similar stories have appeared in the past in sections of the media. Yet, the PPP remains united and strong as ever as witnessed in the successful campaign recently waged prior to the holding of the local government elections and resulting in the PPP winning 48 of the 64 Local Authority Areas while the APNU+AFC and an Independent Group won only 16. What can be more impressive?” Rohee told reporters.

He pointed out too that the party controls 32 seats in the National Assembly, which has forced the APNU+AFC to resort to “all kinds of parliamentary antics to guarantee their one seat dominance in the National Assembly.

“The armchair PPP watchers who, from their cozy offices, pontificate and hatch conspiracy theories, have been and will always hang around to churn out what they believe is fact when in reality they are mere opinions expressed inside their own bubbles,” he said, while adding that the PPP encourages healthy, robust and lively debates within its ranks from top to bottom on a variety of issues.

“If this is what the Stabroek News interprets as ‘infighting’ then they can’t be helped since they chose to stay in their own echo chamber believing they have latched onto something when in fact it is sheer gossip, conjecture and rumour,” he added.

Rohee said Stabroek News is entitled to its own opinion but “not its own facts” and added that with regard to the article the newspaper behaves like a “stray dog going by the smell of things and rummaging the Freedom House neighbourhood for new (or old) juicy inaccuracies and speculations.”

He said that the convening of a party congress is guided by the Constitution of the PPP. The party’s Central Committee, at a duly constituted meeting, is guided by that Constitution on the procedures to convene or to postpone congress.

Central Committee members, Rohee noted, are free to express their views on such matters, however, at the end of the debate the majority view prevails.

“The party will continue its struggle to return to office notwithstanding the challenges ahead. The party will view each challenge as an opportunity to strengthen itself and to improve its methods of work among the masses utilising its cadres and outstanding leaders from top to bottom to achieve its objectives to the benefit of the Guyanese working people,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, Rohee declined to respond to questions on his possible selection as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2020 elections and whether former president Bharrat Jagdeo will be pushed to take a third term.

When asked about running for president, he said, “I am saying that the whole thing is conjecture, gossip and hearsay.” Pressed for a response on whether he has presidential hopes, he said, “I will stick to what I said in this statement.”

Asked about Jagdeo possibly making another bid for the presidency, Rohee said, “You will have to ask Jagdeo that not me.” Told that he is the party’s General Secretary, Rohee insisted that Jagdeo is the person to answer that question. “You ask him that… I prefer you to ask him that,” he said.

“Everyone is fighting to get internal voters on their side to better their chances at the top spot. It is a lot going on,” a source close to the PPP leadership had told Stabroek News. “There are cliques and it deals with those aligned with specific members of the hierarchy. If this person knows that you are talking to or shows an open likeness for this or that person, then one clique leader tries to sideline that person,” another source said.