Part 2: Blackout, Whitewash, Landslide, Wipeout or Washout?

PEOPLE’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo’s press conference, on Tuesday, to discuss the Local Government Elections (LGE) results was a classic case of demonstrable linguistic elasticity, during which he flowered his portrayal of the PPP/Civic’s Election Day performance with words that happily amused and amazed the writer in me, listening to the politician and economist in the former President and Finance Minister, whom I first knew as Head of State Planning three decades ago, back in 1993.

I smiled as he carefully chose selected adjectives to dress-up and colour his discourse in ways to suit, skirting being accused of talking out-of-turn by not using official figures, instead counting on the facts that none could efface, employing words with common denominators — from “good” to “very good” to “exemplary”, “excellent” and “extraordinary” – to drive his main points home.

And same with his words for describing the major opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the former ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) as having been “utterly destroyed” by “a landslide’ that’s effectively a wipeout, a whitewash, a washout and a blackout.”
The PPP Leader appropriately mixed-and-matched adjectives as he reported — from the PPP/Civic’s Election Night preliminary count — that it had either “won massively in more areas” than the last LGEs in 2018, or “significantly increased” its support in “the vast majority” of towns – and thus, unlike the Opposition, he could confidently confirm the ruling alliance’s victory days ahead of the official announcement.

Jagdeo said the election was “well-organised and completed without incident and the results were “a massive and historic victory in almost every part of this country”, with “either an overwhelming victory, or massive gains” in places where the PPP was not traditionally strong.
He thanked supporters and candidates and urged newly-elected councillors to “live up to the ideals of the party and the clear message they got when they agreed to be part of our platform – of our commitment to all the people of our country, regardless of their race and religion and faithful to their developmental objectives and aspirations in the communities they will serve…”
Overall, he said, it was “a memorable campaign, characterised by much hard work, enthusiasm, energy, liveliness and vigour, all positive and on-message…”

He noted too that “Our supporters stayed away from the dungeons of rumor and racism and raised our campaign to a lofty level of bringing people together and staying on-message, for development in every campaign everywhere… It was not the vile sort of campaign we have come to associate with the Opposition and we are extremely proud of that…”
But the PPP Leader offered “A very special thank you to those who came across, who were former APNU and PNC leaders or supporters many for decades and many having voted for them all their lives, but gave consideration to and accepted our invitation to come into the PPP…

“Those who came are part of PPP family now; and we appreciate every bit of their support and the chance they took, having heard so many bad things and rumors about us…
“They must have given great thought to this issue and today they will find and feel the warmth of the PPP, having joined us…”
Jagdeo said he was “very much aware of the type of personal vilification that they must have had to endure from the leaders of APNU and their vile local leaders and activists… The racism they had to face must have been particularly hard for them…”
He said “lots of lies” were pedalled by the APNU and the PNC as they publicly claimed victory on Election Night – while results were still being tabulated; and he condemned the Opposition for prematurely making declarations about “massive” victories country-wide, of winning “every seat” in most areas and “all the seats” in others — and victory too “in every constituency in Georgetown…”

Saying “They’re at it again…”, the PPP Leader identified “a particular pattern” in which the Opposition “claims victory every time they know they’ve lost, even before the numbers are tallied…”
Jagdeo said the intent was that “When the official numbers come out, they hope, the first impression from their false numbers would be the lasting impression on their supporters’ minds and they will never pay attention to the official results when announced…”

He said the APNU and PNC promised to explain their victory at a press conference, allegedly called-off because of an alleged blackout, but according to the PPP Leader, “The only blackout they got was the results…”
The PPP General Secretary noted that the PPP/C’s 2023 votes and seats have grown and said “That’s progression and growth”, also having “won majority of votes cast…” and scored “phenomenal inroads in APNU strongholds…”
He referred to “270%” and “512%” increases in PPP/C support in some areas and posited that “These are not-at-all small numbers… and in some cases they “nearly doubled…”

“That is major by any standard when you can increase your votes so significantly… That is a definition of success… This is clearly a wipeout and a clear definition of a massive victory… That is how you define a landslide…”
Ex-President Jagdeo noted that “Any sane person will conclude this has been a wipeout by any single parameter that you can measure victory on – except in the APNU’s warped metric…

“Our new candidates who came across to us were harassed and vilified, but the vote tells the story…”
He underlined, however, that “Our advance in many areas was due to former APNU supporters who took a chance and joined the PPP/C and waged a very good and positive campaign; and they will continue to lead, because in them I saw a desire to develop their towns and communities – and we thank all of them today, including those women among them who were vilified personally and accused of ‘prostituting’ themselves…”
And he concluded: “This campaign is the beginning of something that’s important for us – the rebuilding of Guyana — and I thank all our traditional supporters, but especially the Afro-Guyanese who came over to us, as they are leading the way in creating that United Guyana we are building…”