–European Commission VP says while congratulating party on its performance at the LGEs
FIRST Vice-President of the European Commission (EC), Frans Timmermans, on Wednesday, congratulated the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on its landslide and historic victory in this year’s Local Government Elections (LGEs), where the party secured 66 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs).
Timmermans described the win as an illustration of the citizenry’s high level of gratitude for the level of development that the PPP/C has been bringing to the country at the central government level.
The highest-level European Union (EU) official to ever visit Guyana, Timmermans opened with the commendation when he delivered remarks during the signing ceremony for an agreement between Guyana and the EU for a mangrove protection and restoration project along Guyana’s coastline.
“Let me start by congratulating you [the PPP/C government] on the election results you achieved earlier this week. I think it shows the level of appreciation of the people for the efforts the government is undertaking to take Guyana into the future.
“Let me say how thrilled I am to be a witness of a country in such huge strides forward in its development and for the European Union it is important that we strengthen. our bilateral ties that we look for ways to cooperate,” he said.
Guyana held LGEs on Monday, 12 June, when Guyanese took to the polls to select the local government councils for the 80 LAAs, which includes 70 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and 10 municipalities.
Of the 10 municipalities, the PPP/C won majority seats in seven of them, while picking up majority seats in 56 of the NDCs.
This has been described as cataclysmic win for the party which already holds majority seats at the central and regional government levels.
The PPP/C won majority votes in the municipalities of Mabaruma, Anna Regina, Corriverton, Rose Hall, Bartica, Mahdia and Lethem. Lethem was an uncontested LAA, after the PPP/C was the only party to submit a list of candidates.
The PPP/C trounced the main political opposition, the A Partnership for National Unity, which earned majority seats in only 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’s 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 11 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.
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.
