WITH the signing of the Proclamation Order by President Donald Ramotar, declaring May 11, 2015 as the date for national and regional elections, the ante is now increased for what is going to be perhaps the most important franchise exercise, since the historic October, 1992 national poll.And with the dissolution order imminent, the constitutional steps for finalising what is billed to be the ‘Mother of all Elections’ would be fully completed.

And even though politics is adversarial, with no quarter asked or given by all the competing political parties, the entire nation will be justified in expecting a campaign to be conducted within the confines of the electoral laws, which includes a peaceful atmosphere.

For this election, it is the issues that must count, because what is at stake is the future of a nation that has made incredible development strides, for the past twenty two years. For this, the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government must take full credit.

Against the background of inheriting a country with a collapsed economy, in which every social sector had ceased to function, or had been obliterated, the PPP/C Government, against so many odds, including a defeated People’s National Congress (PNC) and its destabilising strategies, began the uphill task of reconstructing a shattered nation.

As alluded above, its challenges were numerous, but it stayed the course, while gradually rebuilding Guyana, and restoring the hopes of its people.

Guyana is now a success story, lauded by international multi-lateral institutions, and even many of its detractors, for its astounding recovery, and socio-economic achievements, that has transformed a country, positioning it for modernisation.

Billions of dollars have been invested in our social sectors: new bridges, roads, culverts and highways have been constructed and rehabilitated; access to potable water in over 700 communities throughout Guyana; new hospitals, diagnostic centres, and health centres built and refurbished, new medical services now available to citizens; an entire Education system, that receives the largest slice of the annual budget, gradually overhauled, and producing vastly improved scholastic results; a visionary housing programme that has brought into being close to two hundred housing schemes, in which tens of thousands of working class Guyanese are now proud home owners; a national security system that is in the process of being modernised for better law enforcement capabilities; increased wages and salaries for the nation’s workers; increased old age pensions; an economy that is now in its eight year of consecutive economic growth, and redounding in material benefits to so many. And the list goes on, and on.
Our Amerindians and their communities, for so many decades the victims of criminal neglect, are now genuinely a part of the national development process. Their communities are specifically developed under the Hinterland Development Programme series, that aims to make Amerindian locales economically self-sufficient, and with the broader intention of integrating these well deserving people within the mainstream Guyanese nation.
Guyana now boasts Amerindian doctors, pharmacists, medical technicians, agriculture scientists, headteachers, graduate educators, policeman, military personnel, including officers, and other professionals that are now playing their part in nation building.

This is what the PPP/C Government will be defending as they campaign for another term of office. It is a record of which it can be proud, and can defend without contradiction, for the many benefits that has been accrued to the nation; such as being a respected nation once again.

In other words – the PPP/C Government has given Guyana the best socio-economic life in its entire history.

Neither political Opposition party, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) nor the Alliance For Change (AFC), can deny these numerous signposts of social and economic development that are visible everywhere throughout Guyana.

Let these two parties that have wasted three years of valuable national time be reminded, that governments are judged by their works, and rewarded accordingly.

No right thinking citizen will risk his/her improved material life in the hands of perceived anti-national Opposition parties, whose record since 2011 has been one of obstructing the development agenda of the nation.

Just who both these parties will be seeking to hoodwink during their campaigns, is best understood only among themselves.