Many ask how and why the PPP/C keeps winning elections after elections and the cynics, opponents and those who simply hate and envy the party and its leaders attribute all sorts of mean reasons for these continuous victories at the polls. Among those reasons they assert, of course is the race factor-their main mantra, and in more recent times low turn out at the polls. They also argue that despite the huge amount of mistakes of the government and it has not done anything for the country it still wins elections.

Well the latter is a massive insult to the intelligence of the Guyanese electorate and people. In other words these cynics have reduced the electorate to being downright stupid like sheep following the flock.

It is quite clear that their sense of objectivity has been eroded by their hatred of the PPP, but the plain and simple fact is that it has never lost an election in the history of this country.

On the issue of race, how could those who propel this theory explain the fact that there have been so many excellent black political leaders and stalwarts of the PPP, such as Ashton Chase, E.M. G Wilson, C. V. Nunes, Fred Bowman, Cyril Belgrave, Philomena Sahoye-Shury, Shirley Edwards, George Woolford, Aeri Aesop, Michael Forde, Clinton Collymore and Dr. Roger Luncheon jus to name a few. On this score it is noteworthy to point out that at a PPP congress at the Metropole Cinema in the 1980s E.M.G Wilson on receiving an award from Dr. Jagan for his outstanding contribution to the party said: “Even though I am older than Dr. Jagan he is like a father to me.” How would the cynics explain the fact that in the 1964 election the PPP won 99 votes in Linden (then Mackenzie) but in the 2005 election received over 3,000 votes? How would they explain the fact that in Region 4, the party won over 50% of the votes, even though this region has a majority Afro-Guyanese population? How would they explain the fact that the came out neck and neck with the PNCR in Region 7 in 2005 election even though Indo-Guyanese make up a small minority of the population there? Therefore, to say that the PPP is supported only by Indo-Guyanese and that it is an Indian party is, to use the words of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, “a statement of terminological inexactitude”

The fact of the matter is that the PPP (PPP/C) has never lost an election in this country, whether rigged or free and fair. In 1953, it won a resounding victory when race was not a factor and it won in 1957 and 1964-albeit in the latter instance it did not win a majority. During the period of rigged elections from 1968 to 1985, of course we all know that “it won but did not win.”

The late top PNC member, Dr. Festus Brotherson in the former Caribbean Council of Churches newspaper Caribbean Contact emphatically declared that the PPP won all those elections by an overwhelming majority.

So why and the PPP (PPP/C) continues its winning ways? From its inception in 1950 the party through its dynamic indomitable, sincere, honest and genuine leadership worked persistently, tirelessly and patiently among the masses throughout the length and breadth of this country. In and out of government throughout Guyana through its thousands of foot soldiers and organisers it educates the masses, listen to their problems and try to help solve them; it organises, agitates and galvanises the masses on all fronts and on every issue of national importance and is always in the forefront to defend the rights of the people whenever attempts are made to trample upon them and struggles unceasingly to improve the lives of the masses. The party perhaps is the only one which has groups and extended organisational structures in all 10 administrative regions of this country.

The party has worked and continues to work tirelessly for working class and national unity, one of its founding principles which it has never deviated from. In 1953 it was almost there but unfortunately because of power hungry opportunists aided and abetted by the machinations of foreign powers that unity was ruptured. But the party never gave up on working towards the restoration of the spirit of 1953.

In short it has always stood on the side of poor and downtrodden and therefore it is unbreakably rooted in the masses.

Of course the party is made up of humans and therefore it has made mistakes but they have been made out of sincerity and its quest to improve people’s lives through the development of the national economy, rather than trying to fleece and deceive the masses. Only those who do not do anything do not make mistakes. Also like every other organisation it has had and will have in its midst those recalcitrant members but those are the exceptions rather than the rule.

Despite all that its detractors and enemies may say or do the Guyanese masses have not and will never forget which party stood with them through thick and thin and in government has done so much to transform their lives and their country from one of hopelessness to one of optimism and a better life. It is because of this the PPP not only survived for an unprecedented 28 years in opposition, but also grew stronger.

So the PPP has never sought the short cut to political office like others, instead it has journeyed unrelentingly along the long and hard road through courage, sacrifice and dedication to make the life of the Guyanese people a better. And so at elections the voice of the masses speaks loud and clear. That is the plain and simple explanation for the success of the party at elections. The majority of people do not forget who are their friends.