– PM breaks silence; nails PPP ‘landslide victory’ boast for what it really is

PRIME Minister Moses Nagamootoo has a bit of advice for the opposition, and that is that they stop the lies and get their facts right.

His admonition is in response to the People’s Progressine Party (PPP)’s peddling of its own statistics in support of its claim of a “landslide victory” at the recent local government elections (LGEs), and saying that it’s indicative of what to expect come the 2020 general abd regional elections.

It happened on Friday night during the final leg of the 2019 Budget debate, when he had occasion to set the record straight by refuting a PPP Member of Parliament (MP)’s claims, replete with figures, that his party won 61 per cent of the votes cast at the recent LGEs, when in fact all they got was a mere 21 per cent.

Addressing the issue in his ‘My Turn’ column on Sunday, Minister Nagamootoo referred to the lies being peddled by the opposition MP during the debate as nothing but an attempt to “spin a fiction” on the impact of the LGEs on the Alliance For Change (AFC), and to target him through his home village of Whim.

‘EMPTY BOMBAST’
“I did not want to engage this issue, hoping that it would pass. But when the PPP took its boast and empty bombast into Parliament during the budget debate, I decided to nail their lies, as my silence did not mean surrender to these false and faked figures!” the prime minister said, adding:

“The opposition is in desperation mode and is picking on this small party, as it knows that every single vote for the AFC consigns it eternally to the opposition benches in Parliament.”
Explaining why the 61 per cent “landslide victory” claim should not be taken seriously and ought to be discredited, PM Nagamootoo said that while in general elections, a vote for a party anywhere is counted as a percentage of the total votes cast, with LGEs, a true picture can only be had when the areas that fielded full slates are examined.

And whereas the PPP had only quoted figures for areas where the AFC contested, full slates or not, Minister Nagamootoo said that the AFC, on the other hand, contested full slates in the municipalities of Georgetown, Linden, Mahdia and Mabaruma, and the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) of Bloomfield-Whim, Mocha-Arcadia and Diamond-Grove.

VOTES BY PARTY
In terms of votes polled by party in the areas at reference, the APNU got 57.46 per cent, the PPP 30.27, and the AFC 11.40.
In terms of total votes secured by party, as against the 2018 register, the figures show that the PPP actually only secured 21 per cent with only 208,534 or a voter-turnout of 36 per cent.

Minister Nagamootoo said that given that he is one of the leaders in the AFC, his hometown of Whim also became fair game for the opposition propaganda machinery, with the PPP even going as far as boasting that they had captured the majority of votes there, and that the only votes the AFC was able to get was from “the Nagamootoo family cabal.”
But, seasoned campaigner that he is, PM Nagamootoo was able to bolster his argument with statistics, proving that the APNU+AFC in 2016 secured 31 votes in Whim, while in 2018, the AFC independently contested two constituencies in the village, racking up a total of 62 votes, or an increase of 100 per cent.

HISTORIC IN-ROAD
Said he: “The AFC has made an historic in-road into a PPP base, and has breached what has been for it, since 1964, an Indian-dominated ethnic fortress.
“This is what discerning Guyanese, looking for an answer to ethnic polarisation, should celebrate; not the empty boast of the triumph of political tribalism.”
However, he said that by comparison, the PPP was unable to acquire a single vote in the Buxton-Friendship constituency where the results were: APNU 1,336; AFC 103 and the PPP none.

“The PPP completely failed to show that it has multi-racial appeal, and that it could defeat the PNC on its African-dominated turf,” the prime minister said, adding:
“The objective critics should compare and contrast Whim and Buxton, and examine which party has the greater potential, or even any semblance of popular appeal to impact Guyana’s ethnic and electoral problematic.”

The AFC’s track record shows that it received 35,555 or 10.32 per cent of votes in 2011; 28,366 or 8.4 in 2016 and 3,059 or 10.75 per cent in 2018.

“The critics have used the outcome of the local government elections to put a wedge in the coalition. They must show that the AFC was weakened, or decimated. But a study of the electoral fortunes of the AFC would show that it remains the most credible, genuinely authentic and consistently strong ‘third force’ in Guyana,” he contended.