It is approaching two months since Irfaan Ali was elected the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). Yet he is still to hold a single press conference.
The nation is facing some pressing issues and the PPP, despite the President and his Government’s opinion to the contrary, maintains that Guyana is fast entering into a constitutional crisis. But, the voice of the presidential candidate is missing from the public debate on these matters.
Further, about an hour after he was elected presidential candidate, Ali made some promises to the media regarding providing clarifications about his qualifications that are under question. In not facing the media since, Ali has also failed to make good on these promises.
Yesterday, Jagdeo was asked about the missing Ali.
He responded, “Irfaan is in the Essequibo River…He is visiting some of the islands; he has five meetings today. On the other hand, our president (President David Granger) has not gone out in the community for the last three four years.”
Jagdeo continued, “Ali was in the river after the meeting with the President. He spent from 1:00 to 7:00pm in the river talking to the riverine communities that are suffering enormously because of the policies of this government.”
Jagdeo said that Ali is “working, listening to people and ensuring that their ideas become part of polices in the future.” The Opposition Leader was then asked if Ali has a view on the matters facing the nation currently, the main one being the looming constitutional crisis.
Jagdeo responded, “He [Ali] has a take on every issue.” Asked what the candidate’s take is, he said, “I am not going to get into that, our candidate is working the ground where it matters.”
