APNU+AFC parliamentary list offers mixture of new and greying members

The APNU+AFC coalition government has finalized its Parliamentary list and has made its submission to the Guyana Elections Commission even as President David Granger is yet to officially announce a date for the convening of Parliament.

GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander told News Source on Tuesday that the APNU+AFC has identified its 33 parliamentarians but said the Commission had taken a decision to go ahead and publish the results of the just concluded elections without the parliamentary names of the opposition People’s Progressive Party.

The PPP said on Monday that it was still finalizing its list even as it is yet to settle on whether it will be physically occupying its 32 as it continues to reject being relegated to opposition status following its loss at the elections.

The government’s list includes its 15 senior ministers and 12 junior ministers along with other members including Richard Allen, Audwin Rutherford, Jermaine Figueira, John Adams, Charandass Persaud and Jennifer Wade.

Figueira hails from the mining town of Linden and is one of the rising young men in the APNU. He is a graduate teacher by profession and served the Guyana Teachers Union and several sports organisations in the past.

Some of the new faces to grace the 11th Parliament will be Agriculture Minister Noel Holder, Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Simona Broomes, Finance Minister Winston Jordan, Minister wihtin the Ministry of Education Dr. Nicolette Henry and Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin.

These names are expected to be officially published today which will pave the way for convening of the House shortly.

Notably absent from the coalition’s parliamentary list are former Members of Parliament James Bond, Christopher Jones, Trevor Williams and Desmond Trotman. They all served in the 10th parliament.

Section 99 of the Representation of the People Act dictates that this information along with the number of votes cast for each list of candidates; the number of rejected ballot papers and the number of seats allocated to each list of candidates should have been published no later than 15 days after the elections. (Kurt Campbell)