With the party’s symbol, the cup.– Talks up anti-corruption fight, fair governance (This is the final in a series of articles featuring presidential candidates of the main parties heading into this year’s general elections. This week, Donald Ramotar of the ruling People’s Progressive Party discusses his campaign messages, fighting corruption, and how the PPP will manage an elections without the Jagans for the first time in its history) By Neil MarksA political heavyweight buoyed by what he sees as the ruling party’s stellar record of economic and social recovery over the past 19 years, together with the experience of outgoing President Bharrat Jagdeo which he plans to tap into, Donald Ramotar insists he is ready to hit the campaign trail and ensure the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) chalks up its fifth consecutive victory at the polls this year.And according to him, he is doing so confident of the leadings of the spirit of the Jagans, who founded the party the very year he was born.Ramotar’s transition to become General Secretary of the PPP, with the death of the party’s founder President Cheddi Jagan in 1997, was not an easy task, and neither was his selection to be the Presidential Candidate of his party.When the others who were contesting the nomination gave up in the end, Ramotar received the unanimous vote in a decision the party said reflected its “leadership commitment to maintaining Party unity, continuing progress in Guyana and building stronger unity at all levels of the Guyanese nation.”His own acknowledgement that the road to the elections will not be easy has already seen him urging the party faithful not to see it as an idle race, but one that would entail hard work – a job that he himself is prepared to do in order to sit at the Presidential Complex in New Garden Street.Ramotar is no ordinary politician, having spent almost five decades in the PPP. You could almost say he was born a politician, with the PPP running through his veins. First Family? Donald Ramotar and his wife Deolatchmee, sit with daughter Lisaveta, while their sons Alvaro, left, and Alexei stand behind. Early lifeRamotar, whose middle name is Rabindranauth, was born at Caria Caria, a community along the Essequibo River that was supposedly first inhabited by the Amerindians but saw the infiltration of African slaves.It is believed to have once been a cotton plantation. Ramotar’s father, Sam Ramotar, had moved to the village to help his brother run a timber grant and shop that served the community. There, the senior Ramotar fell in love with Olive Constantine, whose parents were of African and Amerindian lineage.Donald was born to Sam and Olive Ramotar on October 22, 1950, the same year that the PPP was formed as the first mass-based political party in British Guiana, with Dr Cheddi Jagan, his American-born wife Janet,NFL Jerseys Supply, and the charismatic Forbes Burnham at the helm.Ramotar’s father loved politics and would tune his radio to the BBC to follow developments around the world.In 1955, the PPP split along ethnic lines, with Jagan attracting mass support of East Indians and Burnham, Africans.Ramotar’s father was a staunch supporter of the PPP under Jagan, and in time, as he attended the Caria Caria Congregational School, the Jagans and other heavyweights like Boysie Ramkarran and Brindley Benn, stayed at their home and kept political meetings.When the PPP started publishing the Mirror newspaper, young Donald would go along with his father by boat to pick up copies of the newspaper on the island of Wakenaam.He would read those newspapers, and particularly enjoyed the “Straight Talk” column written by Dr Jagan. He liked it for the simple language and the conviction with which Dr Jagan wrote.Ramotar’s earliest memory of elections in Guyana was 1961. He remembers it easily because those elections were held on the eve of the birth of his last sister, Deborah.The young Ramotar started campaigning for the PPP in 1964, when he was yet still too young to vote, distributing leaflets and other paraphernalia for the PPP around Caria Caria and on the Essequibo Islands with his father.Caria Caria wasn’t a PPP village. In the elections of 1961 and 1964, the majority of the votes went to the United Force.When it became apparent to his father that proper schooling would be a problem at Caria Caria, Ramotar was sent to live with his friends Harry Hansraj and Alma Perreira in Georgetown. As a result, Donald Ramotar grew up in Princes Street, Wortmanville, and attended St Andrews Kirk, located opposite the Parliament Buildings.After completing high school, Ramotar moved on to the Government Technical Institute (GTI). It was there that he took note of Deolatchmee, a young girl from Huist T’Dieren.He tried to “tackle” the beautiful lass, who was studying “commercial” at the institute, but she “played basgar,” shrugging off his amorous intentions.Receiving the Oliver T