–Dharamlall says

GUYANA’S progress is underpinned by development in all sections and segments of society, so the “one-dimensional” and “narrow-minded” mindset of the People’s National Congress Reform/A Partnership for National Unity (PNCR/APNU) would not allow the party to garner public support, according to Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall.

“Guyana is moving in a direction that is opposite to what the opposition is seeking to promote; they are very one-dimensional; they are very narrow-minded. In a country that is multiethnic, multiracial, and multicultural, they are focused on race alone, and so their message will not resonate with many people,” Dharamlall said during a virtual discussion on the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C’s) Facebook page.

The diminishing support for the opposition was evidenced by the small groups of PNCR/APNU supporters on Nomination Day, he reasoned.

Dharamlall said too that what is even more convincing are the untruths being peddled by the party about the constituencies it is contesting in for the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE). There are reports that the party is only contesting in 279 of the 610 constituencies.

The reality is, it would be very difficult for the opposition to “garner” public support going forward, especially with a “discredited” leader like Aubrey Norton, Dharamlall said.

He related that is also the case because the opposition “decimated” many of the communities that were under its watch at the local government level, and at the national level during 2015-2020, when the APNU+AFC held office.

“The people have knowledge and evidence of what the opposition is based on their experience and the facts of what they have been through,” Dharamlall said, noting: “People recognise what the opposition’s aim is, and no one is believing the narrative or the messages that they are spreading anymore.”

Regarding the vendors who were being told that they would be removed if they voted for the PPP/C, Minister Dharamlall said that those vendors would remember that it was the APNU+AFC which had “brutalised” them at Stabroek Market and placed them in a muddy yard to vend.

It was the then Opposition Leader, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who went into the area and represented the interests of those people.

“The PPP/C has never done any of the things that APNU is accusing them of, nor do they intend to, and the vendors know that,” Dharamlall said.

The PPP/C could not have survived for over 73 years without having a wide cross-section of people from different races, cultures, and economic levels.

“The PPP/C has been a multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural party, and we have also been multi-dimensional, and we are accepting of everyone irrespective of the colour of your skin or the texture of your hair, and this PPP/C is no different in terms of your outlook…,” Dharamlall said.

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic, therefore, is very proud to have candidates in all of the constituencies across Guyana and in areas that have traditionally been strongholds of the PNC, he related.

Dharamlall highlighted too that the Vice President and the President of Guyana have been consistent in ensuring that the PPP/C work for all the communities and people across Guyana regardless of their geographic or demographic characteristics.