By Tracey Khan-Drakes
[www.inewsguyana.com] – General Secretary of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Joseph Harmon, is of the firm belief that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will sink Elisabeth Harper in their “sea of corruption.”
Harmon, during a telephone interview with iNews reacted to the Party’s announcement that Mrs. Harper will run alongside incumbent President Donald Ramotar as its Prime Ministerial candidate at the upcoming general and regional elections on May 11.
Mrs. Harper is currently the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Harmon described Mrs. Harper as a ‘decent public servant’; however, he criticized the Prime Ministerial candidacy. “We have to look at the role the PPP is casting her in right now… they are taking her out of the public sector and they are putting her into a political environment, where she is going to be drown by the sea of corruption that is affecting the PPP.”
He explained that her selection to this post is strategic since the PPP is “clutching at straws” and he noted that the Party is hoping to appeal to female voters by using Mrs. Harper.
The Party, Harmon said is hoping to use Harper’s clean record as a ticket for their past transgressions. “The legitimacy which the PPP is hoping that her appointment will bring to them is something that even with her credibly would not be able to change the PPP.”
He does not believe that Harper will be given any authority to make a difference. “In the present organization of the PPP that she (Harper) will be given the kind of authority or resources to make any difference what so ever, all you have to do is see the way they have treated with Sam Hinds.”
The APNU General Sesretary also pointed to the internal fighting for position within the Party, which he said may have led to the selection of Harper as a “compromise candidate.”
