President Jagan to resign -- Jagdeo to be new President
by Gitanjali Singh
President Janet Jagan is to resign and will be succeeded by Finance Minister, Bharrat Jagdeo by Wednesday. The President is stepping down for health reasons, and Prime Minister Sam Hinds is expected to temporarily resign his post to facilitate Jagdeo's accession to the presidency, informed sources said yesterday. Mrs Jagan is suffering from angina. The President is expected to announce Jagdeo's ascendancy - which is in keeping with her party's promise to the electorate that if anything happened to her Jagdeo would be the new President - in a national broadcast this evening. Sources explained that what is expected to happen in the next few days is that Hinds would submit his resignation as Prime Minister, and then President Jagan would appoint Jagdeo as the new Prime Minister. Following that she would step down as President, thus paving the way for Jagdeo to be sworn in as President. He would subsequently re-appoint Hinds as Prime Minister. An emergency meeting of the Central Committee of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) yesterday endorsed a decision by the party's Executive Committee on Friday afternoon that the A-team formula should stand. A PPP statement yesterday afternoon said that decisions of importance taken at the meeting yesterday would be communicated to the nation by Mrs Jagan this evening. It also promised a more detailed statement by the Central Committee on the issue shortly. Sources said that it was expected that Jagdeo would have to appoint a new Finance Minister to fill the vacancy created by his elevation to office, and that serious consideration would have to be given to filling the post of Minister of Trade by the end of this month. The A-team arrangement, however, might only last until elections in January 2001. In an exclusive interview with Stabroek News last Friday, Dr Roger Luncheon said that whilst he saw the A-team formula standing for this term, it might not carry over for the elections due by January 17, 2001. Luncheon saw four persons vying for the PPP's presidential candidacy in 2001: himself, Jagdeo, attorney Ralph Ramkarran and Moses Nagamootoo, LLB. He expressed the feeling that pressure would mount for a special congress to be convened to decide on the issue. The decision to run with the A-team formula was a unanimous one by the Central Committee, but was taken in the absence of the party's most popular person at the last congress, Nagamootoo. Nagamootoo and Rohee are both out of the country. Informed sources told Stabroek News that Mrs Jagan intimated to the Central Committee before it took its decision that there needed to be a hands-on approach to the presidency and that she did not have the capacity for that now. She asked to be guided on the matter of the person next in line and the Committee was apprised of the Executive Committee's position on the issue. Sources said that Mrs Jagan's position was that notwithstanding the political aspirants in the party, the A-team had been put to the electorate and therefore should stand. There was unanimous approval of the decision to have Jagdeo as the new President. It is expected that Jagdeo's swearing in will be no small affair, given the secrecy of the last presidential swearing-in ceremony. Mrs Jagan is still expected to retain her position as an executive member of the PPP. She has been put on a rigid schedule of exercises and medication by doctors in the US to help the blood flow to her heart, which is reduced. The President took ill in July, was hospitalised at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital, later did nuclear tests at the Mount Hope Medical Centre in Trinidad and more recently at the Akron City Hospital in the US, as a result of which she was put on a strict medical regime. Mrs Jagan was the party's presidential candidate for the 1997 elections following the death of the late President, Cheddi Jagan. Party sources said it was felt at the time that she was the only one who could have held the party together to win the elections.
|