“Yes he (PPP’s Presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali) has a corruption case before the court and there are allegations that his qualifications might be bogus. But, besides the anointed one in the APNU+AFC coalition, President David Granger, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
That is what Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Dr. David Hinds had to say after learning that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has elected embattled Irfaan Ali to be its Presidential candidate for the next General and Regional Elections.
During an interview with the Guyana Standard, Dr. Hinds was keen to point out that the coalition should not believe that it now has a walk in the park with the upcoming elections because Ali is going into the race with “much of his alleged dirty laundry hanging for all and sundry to see…”
He said, “The coalition contenders themselves, and I am not speaking about Granger here, they themselves would be mired in controversy…One can easily pick on PNC’s Chairwoman, Volda Lawrence for her comments that contracts will only go to PNC people…Candidates on both sides have negatives against them…The coalition still has to work hard or even harder to convince the people that should be returned to office…”
Further to this, Dr. Hinds said he is not surprised that Ali was able to win the elections since he received the blessings, and is a favourite of Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo.
The WPA Executive Member said, “Nonetheless, Ali has his work cut out for him. He will have to prove to the electorate that he is not going to be another Jagdeo’s puppet, that he would be his own man, and not continue the Jagdeo agenda…”
In a statement to the press today, the People’s Progressive Party said five candidates expressed an intention to contest for the post of Presidential Candidate. These were Anil Nandlall, Dr. Frank Anthony, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, Irfaan Ali and Gail Teixeira. Immediately prior to the elections Dr. Frank Anthony, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, and Gail Teixeira withdrew from the contest leaving Nandlall and Ali as the two contestants. Ali received 24 votes and Nandlall received 11 votes from the Central Committee which has 35 members.
