Ramotar vows not to seek office again unless “absolutely necessary”; says PPP needs to transition to younger hands

At a solo press conference at the PPP's Freedom House headquarters this morning, Mr. Ramotar said he made the decision not to join the party in parliament because he believes that the party ought to be repositioning itself and transitioning into new and younger leadership to take the party forward.

Ramotar vows not to seek office again unless “absolutely necessary”; says PPP needs to transition to younger hands

Former President Donald Ramotar who served as the Presidential Candidate for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic at this year’s elections, has brushed aside concerns about his absence from the party’s list of representatives for the National Assembly and has declared that he does not intend to seek office in the future unless it is “absolutely necessary”.

At a solo press conference at the PPP’s Freedom House headquarters this morning, Mr. Ramotar said he made the decision not to join the party in parliament because he believes that the party ought to be repositioning itself and transitioning into new and younger leadership to take the party forward.

“It was my personal view that the party should go into transition at this point in time and to go to transition to younger leaders to take us to future successes in the party. And I thought that the party should have chosen a leader from among this generation of people but generally the leadership of the party after thorough discussions, agreed with that position but they felt that they needed a kind of a transition to that and that is why we have a situation here where we now have Comrade Bharrat Jagdeo to come as the Leader of the Opposition”.

He said the decision about who will be serving the party in the National Assembly was one that was taken by the entire party leadership.

The former President who vowed to still be around lending support to the PPP’s parliamentary team, said he wanted to make that point about the parliamentary composition “very, very clear”. He said he has noticed a number of “haters of the PPP” writing about what has been taking place in the PPP.

As for his former Prime Ministerial Candidate also opting out of Parliament, Mr. Ramotar said Ms. Elisabeth Harper has already made known her decision not to join the PPP in parliament and her decision ought to be respected.

Last week, Ms. Harper told News Source that while she remains open to serving Guyana, she has decided to turn down a PPP invite for her to be one of their Members of Parliament.

Now that the PPP has put together its list of members of parliament, Ramotar believes the party should take up its seats in parliament soon. He said the sooner the party does that, the better it will be for the party.

Questioned about the presence of some controversial former government ministers being chosen as Members of Parliament, Ramotar reiterated that it was a party decision on the composition of the Members of Parliament and he will have to support that decision.

When quizzed about the presence on the parliamentary list of former Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsarran who was fired from that position by Ramotar himself, the former President said the party made the decision.

“What opinions I have on the list, I have expressed it in the place where I was expected to express it but a decision was taken that these people should go to the National Assembly and I will support that list”.

 

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