A WIDELY-PUBLICIZED article headlined ‘PPP suffers setback in Guyana elections’ was published just a month after the APNU+AFC won the May 2015 elections. This article was written by Dr. Odeen Ishmael, Ambassador Emeritus (retired) of Guyana. He is also a historian and author and a long-standing member of the PPP.

Publications were done in early June, 2015 through many international publicity organisations, such as the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA); The Standard; Times of India; The Economic Times; The Gambling News and many more.

In essence, Dr. Ishmael urged the PPPC to accept that there are changes in Guyana and cautioned that there is division in the country, which should be addressed. He noted that with the 65-seat National assembly, the APNU+AFC, under President David Granger got 50.3 percent of the votes and 33 seats; PPP/C obtained 49.2 percent and 32 seats

No Post-Election coalition Interestingly, in 2011 the PPPC won 48 percent of the votes. The
opposition parties, which included the People’s National Congress (PNC), and the other smaller parties contested separately, but adding together they actually garnered a majority
of 33 seats with 52 percent of the votes. However, because Guyana’s constitution does not allow for post-election coalitions, the PPP/C then formed a minority government under the
presidency of Mr. Donald Ramotar.

More recent history then shows that in late 2014, the then opposition APNU+AFC that was formed used its majority in the assembly, moved a vote of no-confidence against the government. Thereafter, the National Assembly was prorogued for six months, but the elections were not held until May 2015. The APNU+AFC won.

According to Dr. Ishmael, “… the citizens of Indian descent (comprising 43 percent of Guyanese) along with the Indigenous Amerindians (9 percent) maintained their support for the PPP, while those of African descent (34 percent) and mixed ethnicity remained solidly in support for the opposition alliance (APNU)”.

Eroding the PPPC
However, the AFC insisted that it had garnered support from sections of the Indo-Guyanese population, thus eroding the PPP/C’s belief, since it was evident that, in East Berbice, a region with a significant majority of Indo-Guyanese, the voter turn-out was relatively low.

The claim was that those who abstained did so because they were disillusioned with the PPP/C; while at the same time, they were not yet convinced of the opposition alliance.

An interesting aspect of the campaign was the accusation levelled by the APNU+AFC on the PPP that the latter had moved away from the ideals of its founder, Cheddi Jagan.

Usual allegations of fraud
May 16, the PPP leadership accused the GECOM of rigging the ballot and made varying demands for a recount of the votes. It even claimed that the international observers—all of whom declared the elections free and fair—colluded with the commission to facilitate the
rigging since they did not observe the actual counting, an essential part of the electoral process.

There was no recount and Ramotar refused to concede and even refused to attend President Granger’s inauguration ceremony, continuing to insist that the PPPC had won the elections even after Granger was declared as the new president

Significant to today’s 2020 elections, Dr. Odeen Ishmael questioned:
The counter-argument to the allegation of fraud is why would any rigging allow the alliance to barely scrape a win by only one percent?
And if there were some degree of rigging, how did the PPP manage to win seven of the ten administrative regions—one more than it did before—in the regional elections held simultaneously as the general elections?

Certainly, if it feels that it won a majority based on the numbers shown on its copies of the statements relating to the results at the polls. It should publish those to buttress its case with the Guyanese populace, Dr. Ishmael said of the PPPC.

The counter-argument to the allegation of fraud by the APNU+AFC is why would any rigging allow the alliance to barely scrape a win by only one percent? And if there were some degree of rigging, how did the PPP manage to win seven of the ten administrative regions—one more than it did before—in the regional elections held simultaneously as the general elections?

In this 2020 elections they won by six – interesting.

It is therefore a clear picture that the PPPC has not been able to comfortable win any elections in Guyana for the longest while. And as Dr. Ishmael questioned that if there was indeed this rigging, why would the APNU+AFC allow themselves to barely win a one-seat in this 2020 elections; something that was consistent with the last elections as well.