ELECTIONS are not won by crowds alone, but rather with votes; and come Monday, when Guyanese head to the polls, the leadership of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is calling on its supporters to not be cowed or intimidated, but turn out in their numbers to vote for progress.
With 48 hours to go before Guyanese vote en masse for the political party of their choice to lead the country over the coming five years, the PPP/C leadership last evening canvased Berbice, hosting a number of public meetings, wrapping up at Whim, Middle Walk, in the vicinity of the residence of Alliance For Change (AFC) Executive Member, Dr Veerasammy Ramaya.
Arriving at the venue shortly after 19:00 hrs last evening, Former President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo was welcomed to boisterous shouts of glee and praises, and some with tears of joy in their eyes at the sight and sound of the charismatic former president.
Dr Jagdeo firstly called on party supporters to translate the enthusiasm being demonstrated at the rallies and public meetings across the country, into votes come Monday.
He told those gathered that on Election Day all must play their part in getting supporters out to vote, and not gamble with the future of the country in the hands of the political Opposition.
According to Dr Jagdeo, supporters and Guyanese at large should not vote in support of the PPP/C because of a hatred for the political Opposition, but rather because of a desire to see sustained progress.

GRANGER’S ELECTORAL ARITHMETIC

Jagdeo also used the opportunity at the Whim podium to decry pronouncements yesterday by Leader of the political Opposition Brigadier (ret’d) David Granger, of a predicted 62 per cent win for the APNU+AFC coalition.
Dr Jagdeo said he was at a loss trying to understand Granger’s electoral arithmetic.
He posited instead that the Opposition leader was in fact looking to scare the PPP/C supporters into staying home on Monday with a foregone conclusion that the coalition had won the election.
According to the Former President, the Opposition “wants to scare us out of voting…We must not allow them to bully us in our own country.”

RUNNING SCARED
The former President also used the opportunity to warn of what he called Opposition plans to subvert the polls come Monday.
He spoke too of recent PPP/C meetings which he said were disrupted by elements of the Opposition and attributed their motive to ‘running scared’.
Dr Jagdeo, in calling on supporters to vote en masse on Monday for the incumbent, declared, “we don’t need to bully people to win an election.”
According to the Former President, “we must not allow them to bully us in our own country.”
Jagdeo told supporters that the PPP/C is a party for all Guyanese and supporters must not be ‘cowed’. “Are we cowards in our own country?” he asked.
He said despite any of the flaws or weaknesses of the PPP/C, it has always stood for and defended the rights of Guyanese.
Dr Jagdeo also used the opportunity to reach out to Berbicians who had voted at the 2011 Election for the AFC.
He told the hundreds gathered at the Whim Public meeting that the AFC had, over the past three years, traded in their votes earned from Berbice to the PNC.
He accused the AFC, along with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), of holding the country to ransom through their actions in the National Assembly.
The former President reminded of the billions axed from the National Estimates over the years and the adverse effects it had on thousands of Guyanese across the country.
According to Dr Jagdeo, over the course of the past three years the political Opposition had made no meaningful proposals to national development.
As such, this time around, when the AFC leadership travels to Berbice to court votes, they should be rejected outright, he said.
He reminded of his theory of ‘a dead AFC’ since the submission of a singular Opposition list to contest the 2015 election on Nomination Day. He said the AFC members, Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo, were now being treated like children by the APNU and it leadership.

Dr Jagdeo further chastised Nagamootoo, saying that he had “sold his soul and conscience” to contest an election on the same platform with a man that has denied the reality of rigged elections in Guyana.

According to the former President, Moses Nagamootoo will never be Prime Minister, as he is confident that in a matter of hours, Guyanese will re-elect Donald Ramotar as Executive President, with Elisabeth Harper as the country’s newest Prime Minister.
In his appeal for voters to turn out in support of the ruling party, the Former President lamented the Opposition stance over the past three years and told Berbicians, “if we had our way, by now every home would have been connected.”
He was making reference to the One Laptop Per Family Programme, which he told Berbicians was shot down by the political Opposition when the time came to vote monetary allocations.
According to Jagdeo, now that the campaign season is in full swing, the political Opposition now finds it convenient to make the same promises.
Jagdeo reminded those gathered for the Berbice meeting at Whim of the PPP/C’s proposals as documented in its manifesto.
He spoke to co-investing with private partners in the region and a commitment to ensuring the sustainability of the sugar industry, among other initiatives.
Other speakers at last evening’s meeting included PPP/C Executive Secretary, Zulfikar Mustapha, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh and Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, among others.

By Gary Eleazar