Charrandas Persaud
Persaud in 2019
National Assembly member for East Berbice-Corentyne
In office
2015 – December 2018
PresidentDavid A. Granger
Parliamentary groupAlliance for Change
ConstituencyEast Berbice-Corentyne
Personal details
BornGeorgetown, Guyana
Nationality
  • Guyana
  • Canada
Political partyAlliance for Change
Alma materUniversity of Toronto
Occupation
  • Lawyer
  • Politician

Charrandas Persaud is a Canadian-Guyanese lawyer and politician, who was Guyana's High Commissioner to India from March 2021 to October 2022. He was a member of the Guyanese National Assembly from 2015 to 2018, representing the Alliance for Change party in the East Berbice-Corentyne region (Region 6).

Personal life

Persaud was born in Guyana, and moved to Canada in the 1970s and later obtained a real estate license. He returned to Guyana in 1999 and studied law at University of Guyana.[1][2]

Career

As a politician, Persaud was a member of the Alliance for Change (AFC) party.[3] He joined the AFC in 2011, and campaigned for the AFC in Berbice.[4] In 2013, Persaud left the AFC for two months,[3] believing that he wasn't receiving due credit for his campaigning work.[4] At the 2015 Guyanese general election, Persaud was elected to represent Region 6,[3] East Berbice-Corentyne.[5] The AFC formed a coalition government with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).[3]

As an Assembly member, Persaud worked on a bill to control the sale and use of tobacco in Guyana. The bill passed in July 2017.[6] In late 2018, Persaud supported the government's budget for 2019. Persaud was critical of the government's downsizing of the Guyanese sugar industry, which he argued cost thousands of jobs.[7] He also believed that the AFC was just blindly supporting APNU policies, and was particularly critical of a pension bill by prime minister Hamilton Green.[3]

No-confidence vote controversy

In December 2018, Persaud voted against the AFC in a vote of no confidence tabled by the opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP). As a result of his vote, the vote was lost by the government by 33 votes to 32, triggering a general election.[2] Persaud says that it was "the only time in three and half years as a Parliamentarian that I voted according to my conscience".[3] After the vote, Persaud was expelled from the AFC party,[2] and was removed as an assembly member.[8] Persaud also received death threats.[2]

The day after the vote, he fled to Toronto, Canada, via Barbados,[2] fearing for his safety as Guyana has a history of political assassinations.[9] After reaching Canada, Persaud chose not to pledge allegiance to any Guyanese political party,[8] but criticised a number of AFC politicians including Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, Khemraj Ramjattan, and Raphael Trotman.[10] Persaud was replaced by APNU's Barbara Pilgrim in the National Assembly. Pilgrim had been an APNU candidate in Region 6 at the 2015 election.[5]

In Guyana, there were multiple judicial reviews of the vote, claiming that 34 votes should have been needed for the vote to stand, and that Persaud should have been ineligible to vote due to his dual Canadian nationality.[11] One allegation was that Persaud was not a Guyanese citizen.[12] The no confidence vote was eventually upheld, triggering the 2020 Guyanese general election.[13] Persaud endorsed PPC candidate Irfaan Ali for the 2020 Guyanese election.[14] In the court case, it was ruled that dual citizens could not be members of the Guyana National Assembly, forcing four government ministers to resign.[15]

Persaud denied allegations that he was bribed or coerced to vote with the PPP.[7][8] In March 2019, Persaud filed a $30 million lawsuit against Khemraj Ramjattan for libel relating to the vote of no confidence and a subsequent investigation started by Ramjattan.[9] During the investigation, Persaud admitted to working on a 1 million USD gold deal for clients.[16]

High commissioner

In March 2021, Persaud was appointed Guyana's High Commissioner to India.[17] He was removed from his position in October 2022 after a video became viral of him insulting a woman for enquiring about a stray dog that lived in Persaud's compound. Persaud’s driver had killed the dog.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Charrandass Confesses". Guyana Chronicle. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Lisa Xing (15 January 2019). "Guyanese MP flees to Toronto after receiving death threats for voting against his own government". CBC.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Who is Charrandas Persaud?". News Room. 22 December 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  4. 1 2 Campbell, Kurt (26 September 2013). "AFC hopes Persaud will withdraw resignation". iNews Guyana. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  5. 1 2 "Barbara Pilgrim replaces Charrandas Persaud". Stabroek News. 4 January 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  6. ↑ "Guyana Successfully Passed Tobacco Control Bill". United Nations. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  7. 1 2 "AFC expels Charrandas Persaud". Guyana Chronicle. 23 December 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 "Charrandas Persaud hints at supporting PPP during speech in Canada". Guyana Online. 30 December 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  9. 1 2 "Charrandas Persaud files $30M lawsuit against Ramjattan". iNews Guyana. 23 March 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  10. ↑ "Charrandas Persaud defends toppling of gov't". Stabroek News. 27 December 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  11. ↑ "Consolidated Hearings – Christopher Ram v The AG of Guyana, The Leader of the Opposition and Joseph Harmon, Bharrat Jagdeo v The AG of Guyana, Dr Barton Scotland and Joseph Harmon, and Charrandas Persaud v Compton Herbert Reid, Dr Barton Scotland, Bharrat Jagdeo and Joseph Harmon". The Caribbean Courts of Justice. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  12. ↑ "Charrandas Persaud Plans To Return To Guyana 'Soon'". Saint Lucia Times. 7 January 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  13. ↑ "Guyana Faces Crucial National Elections on March 2". Center for Strategic and International Studies. 27 February 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  14. ↑ "Charrandass Persaud endorses Irfaan Ali". Stabroek News. 29 December 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  15. ↑ "'I'm now GT to the bone' – Harmon no longer a US citizen". Guyana Palace. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  16. ↑ "Charrandass admits to US$1M gold deal". Guyana Chronicle. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  17. ↑ "Charrandass Persaud accredited as Guyana's High Commissioner in India". News Source Guyana. 18 March 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  18. ↑ "Charrandass Persaud axed as Guyana's High Commissioner to India by President Ali over obscene outburst". Guyana Times. 26 October 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
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