I thought PM would endorse me in ‘beautiful rivalry’ – Ramjattan

By Fareeza Haniff

As the internal battle heats up within the Alliance For Change (AFC) hours before its Congress, chairman Khemraj Ramjattan has said he expected that he would have received the support of Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.

There is motion expected to be discussed at the Congress this Saturday endorsing Ramjattan as the Prime Ministerial candidate in a Coalition with APNU for the next general elections.

“I quite frankly felt that the Prime Minister was going to endorse me. I didn’t know we would have ended up with a challenge like this but this, as I have said already, (are) beautiful rivalries between people…,” Ramjattan told the News Room Thursday during a telephone interview.

Ramjattan, who is also the Public Security Minister, made it clear that he is not competing against the incumbent Prime Minister.

“It is a motion that some people have brought, endorsing me as the next candidate. It is a motion… it is not that me and him are going to be vying for the position.

“This is a motion that members across the country have brought saying that Ramjattan should be endorsed. I am very happy to see the motion brought and I don’t know why it is riling up certain people,” the AFC Chairman told the News Room.

Meanwhile, as it relates to a poll conducted in February 2019 by the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES) which shows that President David Granger is highly favoured, Ramjattan said the poll also showed that he [Ramjattan] is doing better than the Prime Minister.

“The same poll says that within the areas that we would like to take polls from, I am doing double well than the Prime Minister and that is with PPP supporters…Ramjattan is getting 19 per cent as against Nagamootoo’s nine per cent,” he said, adding, “that is where my significant contributon will come from.”

Earlier Thursday another AFC Executive, Imran Khan made damning allegations against a “high ranking” party executive but Ramjattan said he has no knowledge on who Khan is speaking about.

“These are times when people are not saying the right things…it is always wise for leaders to shut their mouths up at this moment,” Ramjattan told the News Room, offering no further comments on this issue.