–Dr Jagdeo says party will navigate contemporary subjects like social media, the international situation, gender and youth, among other things
THE increase in new memberships has resulted in the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) having its “largest congress” ever, with over 3,000 delegates and observers.

The 32nd congress will see the party, led by its current General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, exploring the past, present and future of the party, as it continues to work for the betterment of Guyanese.
According to Dr Jagdeo, during a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Thursday, aside from the supporters who reside abroad who will contribute to the deliberation, several ministers who are integrated within the civic arm will be accredited to be observers and participate in the entire Congress.

This year’s theme is ‘Strengthen the Party, Defend Guyana, Unite Our People for Progress and Prosperity.’
The congress begins today and is being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal, Georgetown. Notably, registration begins today and the main sessions will be on Saturday and Sunday.

“We have delegates travelling from all 10 regions to be here and in significant numbers. It’s the largest Congress ever held by the People’s Progressive Party,” Dr Jagdeo said, noting that the last congress, which was in 2016, had just over 1,000 delegates.
The PPP General Secretary also extended his gratitude to over 500 volunteers who have been working assiduously to prepare for congress.

With the opening ceremony set to be broadcast live, Dr Jagdeo said that at the congress, there will be the presentation of the Central Committee report, which will be done by him, since he is the current General Secretary.
Shifting his attention to what this reports contains, the PPP General Secretary said that it will not only outline the history of the party but its core values that unite them and their struggles throughout the different periods in the life on the country.

Dr Jagdeo said too that it will focus a lot on what took place since the last congress, which was held when they were in opposition. And it will trace their fortunes throughout that period along with the environment in which they had to operate, which was riddled with economic challenges, the fight to defend democracy, among other things, under the then APNU+AFC administration.

“There will be seven workshops where all 3,000 odd delegates and observers will have an opportunity to freely express their views and have those views documented so the views can then infuse the future programmes of the party with those ideas that come out of the congress,” he said.

The workshops will focus on these topics: The strengthening of the party, politics and parliament, social and economic policy, local government, social media, the international situation and youth and gender.

“We’re looking forward to an active participation from all of our members in a free, open manner, so that we can grow the party, reaffirm its position on these matters and as I said before, come up with new ideas as to how we can we can grow the party,” the PPP General Secretary further stated.

He then said that there will be several resolutions that will come from different party groups that will be put before the congress on various matters such as Palestinian issue, the border issue, among other things.

Giving a more in-depth analysis of the party’s elections, he said: “So at our Congress we do not elect the General Secretary or the other secretaries of the party. There are two elections. First, all the delegates can vote for the thirty-five members of the Central Committee of the party. So they elect from those contesting and in this case 93 persons, they have to elect thirty-five members of the Central Committee of the party.”

He further noted that they then have an opportunity to elect five candidate members who will be able to attend the Central Committee meetings, but will not have the right to vote.

“When they elect those, the Central Committee will meet and then they will elect the General Secretary of the party and other secretaries. This has been in our Constitution and the practice from the very beginning. It’s nothing new. I see some people who are not very familiar with our Constitution or what took place at every Congress prior to this one, there have been some fights of fantasy as to what will happen at this congress,” Dr Jagdeo said.