Declaring that he has been out of politics for far too long, Charrandass Persaud – who was expelled from the Alliance For Change (AFC) after he voted with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to bring down his own Government back in 2018, has announced that he will be returning to the political arena soon. 

Whether he will join an existing party or create one of his own is still to be decided but Mr. Persaud made it clear on Sunday, as he spoke to reporters, that he will never return to the AFC. 

 “I have decided to get back in the political arena but I am not affiliating myself to any party. No political party leader or ordinary person has asked me to join them, none, so far, and I have not decided to form my own party either. All those decisions, and those questions will be answered after December 15, 2024,” Persaud said. 

It was his vote that gave the PPP/C – the then Opposition – the majority in the National Assembly to successfully pass a No-Confidence Motion against the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) on December 21, 2018. 

Persaud said under the APNU+AFC coalition, the AFC lost its independence, and had become a party of “yes men.”

Six years later, Persaud said he has no regrets for triggering the removal of the last government.

Following the 2020 elections, Charandass Persaud was appointed Guyana’s High Commissioner to India, but he was removed from the position after video surfaced with him insulting and using expletive language at a female University lecturer for feeding stray dogs near to his official residence in India.

He complained to reporters that he is dissatisfied with the current Government.

“And nobody is doing anything about the loans that they took and the decisions that they made. Why do we have to respect and honour anything they did after December? …The present government ought not to honour anything that the coalition did after December 21, 2018. Seriously. The fruit of the poisoned tree has to be poisoned,” Persaud said. 

He is also not happy with the manner in which small contracts are being awarded under the current administration.

“The issuing of contracts, road contracts in particular, to people who have claimed that they have crossed the floor from PNC to PPP…That man gets road contracts left right, and centre. And the contractors, who are diehard PPP supporters, are getting these $15M projects, and some of them are not even being paid attention to. That by itself speaks to the stupidity of the people issuing these contracts,” Persaud said. 

Charandass, who revealed that he was able to secure a $50M contract from the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) to construct a stretch of road in Cummings Lodge. He said the project was completed on time, but he is still to be fully paid.

“Contract law allows you to take what they call a retention bond; I presented Omar’s office with a retention bond that I paid $75,000 for. If I can’t fix the road, and you find something wrong with it within the year, you liquidate the bond and you fix the road with the insurance money. But you are therefore covered to fix the road that I did wrong, if it shows up that it is wrong. They refused to take the retention bond, so they are holding my money. I spoke to Colin Croal, who is the Minister of Housing, give me my money. It is money that I have earned legally,” he explained. 

He also called on the Government to address the issue of conflict of interest, noting that an engineer should not be awarded projects that he is required to supervise. 

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