The ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is working to build its future cohort of leaders by targeting youths from across the country.
This is according to the party’s General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who explained that the aim is to now only grow the PPP’s youth membership but also prepare them to takeover leadership roles both within the party and at a national level as well.
“At the last Delegates Congress when I spoke, I said by the time we have our next congress, we will have a 5000-strong youth movement all in line with preparing the next generation of PPP leaders who will emerge in the next, maybe, 10 years or so as the leadership of this party and the country. And we are working to prepare them,” he stated during his weekly press conference on Thursday at the party’s Freedom House headquarters in Georgetown.
Jagdeo went onto disclose that only recently, the party boosted its youth arm – the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) – with more than 600 new members from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
This figure, Jagdeo explained, is expected to grow when similar exercises are held in all the regions across the country. In fact, only Friday, the PPP General Secretary travelled to the Moruca Sub-district in Region One (Barima-Waini) for another youth camp hosted by the PYO during which several hundred young people joined the party’s youth arm.
“These are kids from every community and from every race… Our party is the only multi-racial party in this country and the largest Amerindian party too because we have a massive amount of members who are Amerindians. The last congress, one-third of the delegates were Amerindians who came to the [PPP’s] Congress. We have in our leadership, a number of Amerindians,” the General Secretary stated.
The PPP’s Congress, which is due every two years, was last held in May of this year saw several new and young members elected to the 40-member Central Committee of the party.
Leading the list with the highest votes was President Dr. Irfaan Ali (2308). Coming in a close second was the General Secretary of the party, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo (2257), while the party’s Executive Secretary, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, came third (2174).
Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat (2046); Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister, Gail Teixeira (2015) and former Minister of Local Governance and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall (1912) rounded out the top six.
Other Central Committee members also include Housing and Water Minister, Collin Croal (1792); Minister within the Office of Prime Minister Kwame McCoy (1721); Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall (1690), Amerindian Affairs Minister, Pauline Sukhai (1688) and Shyam Nokta (1616).
Also elected were Ricky Ramraj (1502); Member of Parliament Jennifer Westford (1485), Neil Kumar (1465), Anand Persaud (1372), Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony (1308), Zamal Hussain (1224); Faizal Jaffarally (1221); Bryan Allicock (1213); Human Services Minister, Dr. Vindhya Persaud (1206); Culture, Youth and Sport Minister, Charles Ramson Jr. (1155); Karl Singh (1115).
Claire Singh (1088), former President Donald Ramotar (1075), Humace Oodit (981), Region One (Barima-Wini) Chairman Brentnol Ashley (916); Guyana Rice Producers Association (GRPA) President and Member of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj (915), former Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran (899); Sheik Ayube (896), former PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee (735) and President of the Women and Gender Equality Commission Indranie Chandarpal (703) are also on the Central Committee.
Among the new Central Committee members are former Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman Paul Cheong (1111); Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner and Attorney-at-Law Sase Gunraj (749) and Parliamentary Secretaries Sarah Browne (1240) and Vickash Ramkissoon (873).
Meanwhile, five persons were elected to the committee but as candidate members without voting rights. They were Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar (1317); Labour Ministry Permanent Secretary Mae Toussaint Jr. Thomas (891), Jason Abdulla (888), Andrew Forsythe (706) and Rion Peters (688).
Following the three-day congress, GS Jagdeo had said that the ethnic diversity was there for all to see.
“Overall, our congress was a resounding success. I’ve seen some people griping all the time. The shock value of what they saw here. The ethnic diversity, when you go under the tent and you look at the volunteers and the people, we didn’t pay those people. People of every race, coming from Linden and every part of the country. East Coast, Georgetown,” he noted
The GS further pointed out that the PPP/C’s membership has grown exponentially between the last congress held in 2019 and now. Approximately, 3000 delegates and observers attended the party’s congress in May.
“Our party has grown enormously from the time we were in opposition, to this congress. We have had more than twice the number of delegates of past elections. And large numbers of volunteers,” Jagdeo said.
