-Jagdeo expresses satisfaction with strides being made

FOCUSED on uniting the nation, in order to restore accountability, transparency, and commitment, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, affirmed that the reason the party could achieve a landslide victory and make major inroads in Opposition strongholds was because of the clean and positive campaign it ran.

The PPP General Secretary, on Tuesday, at a press conference at Freedom House, said that the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) was fixated on steering Guyanese in the wrong direction with its vile campaigning and constant ad hominem attacks on PPP Afro-Guyanese supporters.

Commending PPP candidates and supporters for the great success at the Local Government polls, especially in Georgetown and Linden, Jagdeo said: “From Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Linden, Kwakwani, almost every part of this country we have seen either an overwhelming victory for the party or massive gains in places where we traditionally were not strong.”

He further added: “And so it is only because of those who supported this party, that victory was possible. So today, I wish to thank all of them. I want to thank the candidates in particular for contesting these elections.”

Jagdeo then said he hopes that the party’s candidates who were elected as councillors in these local government bodies, will stay keen on carrying out the PPP’s developmental objectives, since that is the commitment that the party has made to the people of Guyana, regardless of race, religion, or gender.

Reminiscing on what was deemed as “memorable”, he remarked that the campaign trail was composed of hard work, enthusiasm, liveliness, and positivity, adding that: “… If anyone looks at our campaign, throughout the country almost in every instance, you saw a great deal of energy and vigour and people who were steered away from the dungeons of rumour and everything else and racism and raised our campaign to a lofty level, a campaign of bringing people together across races and staying on message of development in every community.”

Apart from condemning the traditional unpleasant behavior displayed by the Opposition even after the voting period, Jagdeo also cast his usual warm embracement to cross-overs who endured many harsh attacks from APNU.

He then called upon the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) to investigate racist rhetoric that was being spread by Opposition arms, on the day of elections, asserting: “I hope that the ERC will investigate this because if they don’t, then they will be not fulfilling their mandate.”

According to the PPP General Secretary: “I want to say a special thank you today, apart from the traditional supporters, to those who came across who were formerly APNU leaders or supporters. Many for decades, and some of them for all their lives who voted for APNU and they came across, they accepted our invitation to come into our lives, meaning the life of the People’s Progressive Party. They are now part of our family. I want to say to them today, they are now part of this family…”

PPP’S SUPPORT IN GEORGETOWN SKY-ROCKETS

Moreover, Jagdeo lauded the major inroads made by the PPP in Georgetown, to which the Opposition has been downplaying, in order to cope with their tremendous defeat.

He conveyed: “You have heard from last (Monday) night to now lots of lies, as is typical of APNU. They rushed even before the results were in, and they started making declarations about how they won massively in the country…” noting that given the Opposition’s absurd behavior, one would think they had a clean sweep.

According to the actual results published by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the PPP secured five of the fifteen constituencies, with a whopping 12,553 votes, almost double the number of votes in 2018 in Georgetown.

With significant increases such as in constituency one, where the PPP saw an almost 500 increase as compared to 2018, and even though they lost in constituency Five, there was a 528 growth for the PPP from 2018.

The PPP General Secretary commended the excellent ground work done for a number of other constituencies that also increased significantly.

In response to the pitiful celebration by the Opposition, Jagdeo said: “Now this is clearly a wipe out of 80 areas, the PPP would have won the majority of the votes in 66 of 80. That’s a definition of a massive victory. That is how you define landslide. Not by winning a constituency in Georgetown that you have won historically for 60 years, or in Linden.”