– party wins majority seats in 66 Local Authority Areas

THE People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has claimed a satisfying landslide and historic victory in this year’s Local Government Elections (LGEs) after taking majority seat wins in a total of 66 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs), and capturing the popular vote in another four LAAs where it has tied with the main political opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

Meanwhile, the APNU has only earned majority seats in 14 of the 80 LAAs across the country, marking a decline for the party from the 23 LAAs that they won majority seats in when LGE was previously held in 2018.

Included in the PPP/C LGE achievements this year is an almost 100 per cent increase in votes in the capital City Georgetown, where the party is expected to pick up as much as 10 seats in the 30 seat Council. This is a further incremental increase over the seven seats that the party had picked up in 2018, and more than triple the three seats that the party had in the 2016 LGE.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday at his party’s Freedom House headquarters, PPP/C General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo profusely thanked the party’s many individuals who lent support, enabling such a cataclysmic win.

“I wish today to thank the supporters of the PPP/C for delivering once again a massive and historic victory for the party. The supporters from all over Guyana; from Essequibo, Berbice; Region Three, Four, Five, One; Georgetown, Linden, Kwakwani; almost every part of this country has seen either an overwhelming victory for the party or massive gain in places where we were traditionally not strong. It is only because people supported the party that this victory was possible,” Dr. Jagdeo remarked.

He continued: “I want to thank the candidates in particular for contesting on behalf of the party. Many of them have done so well and in performance of duties as councillors they will live up to the ideal of the party and the clear message we send to them when they chose to be part of our platform. That is our commitment to the people of the party, being faithful to the development objective and aspirations. Thank the candidates and the 26,000 backers. Thank you also to the workers, [who] are behind the scenes. For every polling place have we had an army of people working with them; without them the victory that we have would not have been possible.”

Dr. Jagdeo also expressed special gratitude to the many crossover candidates who came from the APNU to support the PPP/C this year.

According to Dr Jagdeo, at this year’s LGE the PPP/C has seen a significant increase in votes in several of the townships across the country. In Bartica, a stronghold for the APNU, the PPP/C surpassed APNU and clinch the Proportional Representation (PR) popular vote, as well as nine seats. This is a four seat increase over the five seats the party won in 2018.

According to results released by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in the PR component of the elections in Bartica, the PPP/C picked up 1,784 votes, surpassing the 1,601 votes picked up by APNU.

The PPP/C increased its PR seats from three to five, and after winning two constituency seats in 2018 this year, the party won four. APNU lost previously held seats in Constituencies One and Seven of the municipality.

Comparatively, in 2018 APNU had picked up 1,521 PR votes, compared to 1,145 picked up by the PPP/C.

The PPP/C saw another massive increase in votes in Linden, another APNU stronghold. In Linden, the PPP/C experienced a 512.9 per cent increase in supporting votes garnering 2,464 votes in 2023, a massive increase from the 402 that the party had at the 2018 LGE. This is according to results released by GECOM.

According to Dr. Jagdeo, the PPP/C has also seen marked increase in support in the township of Mahdia and New Amsterdam as well, however, up to late Tuesday evening; GECOM was still to release the results for these municipalities. The elections commission had also not released the results for Georgetown up to late Tuesday evening.