Yesterday, at the third and final day of the the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) 30th Congress at the J cChandisingh Secondary School, the results of the election of the 35-member leadership body  was announced, with President Donald Ramotar, General- Secretary of the Party topping the list, and former president, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo coming second.

Top ten of the newly-elected Central Committee are Donald Ramotar, Bharrat Jagdeo, Frank Anthony, Anil Nandlall, Gail Teixeira, Navin Chanderpal, Roger Luncheon, Indranie Chanderpal, Pauline Sukhai, in that order.
Newly elected to the top leadership body of the PPP are Shyam Nokta, Colin Croal, Nigel Dharamlall, Chitralekha Dass, Vishwa Mahadeo, David Armogan and Kwame Mckoy.
The packed agenda of the 3-day Congress, which was opened last Friday, included workshops on various themes, as well as discussions on the way forward for the Party, with Party members pledging to heed the General-Secretary’s call for greater commitment to Dr. Cheddi Jagan’s ideals and dreams for a progressive and united Guyana; and a charge to rise, organize and rebuild so as to strengthen the Party and ensure the recapture of the parliamentary majority so that the developmental thrust of the PPP/C Government would no longer be stymied by anti-developmental and unpatriotic forces that have severely impeded the nation’s social development and economic growth.  As the President said, the gains made by the PPP/C governmental construct need to be safeguarded as they are not invincible and could be reversible
At this recent PPP Congress factors that led to the PPP losing its parliamentary were discussed and indications are that one of the factors was a manipulation of the results, especially with the recent disclosure by GECOM Commissioner Dr. Keshav Mangal who chided PNC Commissioner Vincent Alexander for omitting in his accusations against former Chief Elections Officer, Gocool Boodhoo that Returning Officer for Region 3, Farley Sobers went to the full commission one week after Final Results and Allocation of seats were declared –  where he apologized for leaving out seven pages of results covering some 19 polling places in his tabulation of results for the said region – a PPP stronghold, which he gave in his declaration of results and which had to be accepted by Boodhoo for his final tabulation.
Stabroek News edited out this aspect of the letter during its publication and questions are being asked as to the reason behind the silence from the supposedly independent media. This revelation has more bearing than Alexander’s allegation against Boodhoo as it means that the governing PPP/C had in fact won a majority of the parliamentary seats if the excluded votes in one of its traditional strong areas were taken into account. Mangal said that the adopted minutes of the commission meeting in question can prove his claim.
However, the Party knew that it had won the majority, and this was disclosed by President Donald Ramotar in an exclusive interview with the Chronicle shortly after he assumed the presidency. It was this conviction that caused the PPP to call for a recount of the ballots cast, a request which it had to recall because the opposition was threatening violence and had already massed in the streets in what was clearly a pre-planned strategy.  The PNC had, presumably because it had thought that their manipulation would have won them the election, already announced that it had won and Granger was being addressed as the President and giving victory speeches.
It was also recognsed at Congress that GECOM and the Registrars Office are biased in favour of the opposition, and delegates of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) on Saturday urged their party to overhaul the General Registrar’s Office (GRO) because of the opposition being given preference in getting birth certificates for its members to register on the voters’ list. In reporting to the plenary session on the Political Situation, Shyam Nokta observed that there have been several reports of favouritism in getting source documents such as birth certificates. He said the opposition was, however, being facilitated. Against that background, his committee recommended that the GRO be restructured. Touching on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Nokta reported that there was ongoing influence in the commission by the joint opposition.
In his address at the opening ceremony of the PPP’s 30th congress the President said the Party and Guyana as a whole cannot afford to relent to an opposition which has proven by their actions that they are unfit to run this country and urged delegates to be resolute in the face of struggles as the progress made so far is not invincible and has to be defended everyday and reinforced.