–President Ali says; commends Dr Jagdeo for assiduous efforts in building the party
–slams ‘vagabonds’ who attempted to rip Guyana’s democratic fabric, went against the people’s choice

AFTER restoring vision to the people of Guyana and shattering untrue narratives that were being implanted in the minds of Guyanese about them, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is standing as the champion of the people, President, Dr Irfaan Ali has said.

The Head of State highlighted this during his address at the opening ceremony of the PPP’s 32nd Congress at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), on Saturday.
He applauded the party’s General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo for dedicating himself towards the betterment of the party.

The President said that political entities must have the confidence in themselves to self-examine, to rectify and to realign, and that is what the PPP did.

“There was a thorough self-examination of the strengths and the weaknesses and led by the General Secretary, we developed a plan and a strategy to convert every weakness into strength and to lay a path for a party that is sustainable, resilient and one that allowed us to achieve victory in 2020. We must not take this period in the life and history of our party, lightly,” he said.

In speaking about the party’s General Secretary’s, Dr Ali said: “He [Dr Jagdeo] sacrificed every hour of his time for the PPP and to ensure that the PPP remains strong, remains resilient and remain the champion but more importantly, in that sacrifice, was to ensure that the PPP remain the champion of the people of this country.”

The President related that the PPP had set forth on the path to crafting the “One Guyana” concept, which, according to him, was not accidental as it was birthed after the party’s last congress in 2016.

“When we designed [it], it wasn’t a slogan when we designed [the] philosophy in the then opposition and the PPP of creating a one Guyana, one future, one people,” the Head of State noted.
He later went on to say: “…The mandate of the leadership of the PPP was to walk every single street, walk every single corner, touch every community, touch every heart, reach out to every Guyanese and bring back hope, aspiration, ideas, vision to the people of Guyana, and it is this mandate that allowed us to reposition the PPP and to get the message back out there that the only national party is the PPP.”

Also, contrary to the days when the PPP allowed untrue narratives about the party to be peddled by detractors of development, the President said the party has since countered this narrative and taken control by naturally showing the people of Guyana what the PPP stands for.

“The mission is to rebuild, to modernise, to carry our message to every home, to disallow those with racist and divisive agenda to build our narrative,” he said.

PRESERVING DEMOCRACY
It has been locally, regionally and internationally reported that Guyana’s democracy was under threat in 2020, as there were unlawful acts aimed at tampering with the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

While there were many who stood tall in calling out those persons who attempted to rip the fragile fabric of Guyana’s democracy, Dr Ali said that there were still some “vagabonds” who attempted to derail the lawful path that was due.

He said: “We must thank all those in our society who stood up when it mattered for our country… And we must never fail to call out the minority who masquerade as the voice of society but does not have the dignity or integrity to stand up for this country when it matters.”

Additionally, he spoke about the battle and the awakening of the citizens’ political consciousness and stressed that the journey to 2020 must be recorded correctly.

He then reflected on the no- confidence motion filed in 2018 by the then opposition, PPP against the APNU+AFC. Notably, AFC Member of Parliament Charrandas Persaud defected and voted for the No Confidence Motion. The PPP had 32 seats in the House and needed one more vote to win.

While the motion should have paved the way for fresh elections in three months, the then APNU+AFC government, squatted in power until 2020.

Dr Ali said: “They then went to the court making up arguments and all those who claim to have moral ethos in our society. Those vagabonds were part of a team trying to justify 32 was more than 33. They were the ones breaching the constitution. They were the ones trampling upon the constitution and today, they have the audacity to say “we believe in constitutional rule.” They believe in selfish agenda to protect power only for themselves. That is what they believe in.”

The people, in 2020, went to the polls and peacefully gave a mandate to the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to govern.

Guyanese, after casting their votes, had to endure a five-month wait for the results of the General and Regional Elections as they witnessed alleged unlawful acts and a slew of legal challenges.
During this time, the patience of the electorate was tested, as electors observed what was described as attempts by the then APNU+AFC administration to rip the democratic fabric of the nation, with “delay tactics” which were openly criticised by a wide section of society.

It was only after the legal challenges and international intervention that a national recount of all votes cast was convened and the figures showed that the PPP/C received 233, 336 votes, while the APNU+AFC Coalition got 217,920 votes.