–Dr Jagdeo says
REGARDLESS of who is leading the People’s National Congress-Reform (PNC-R) disguised as the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the party, just like a tiger, cannot change its stripes as it has already dug up its battered 2015 campaign promises ahead of the 2025 General and Regional Elections.
This is according to the General Secretary of the governing People’s Progressive Party, (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, who addressed the media on Thursday last during his weekly press conference at Freedom House on Robb Street, Georgetown.

Dr Jagdeo, also the country’s Vice President, stated that the Opposition does not have a viable strategy to lead the South American nation as Guyanese have become exhausted with its usual tactic of mobilising race.
“Long before they had the question of this congress and choosing their leader, they were not a productive opposition because they chose not to represent the people of this country. Everything for them was about race and as I pointed out that’s not a viable strategy in modern Guyana,” he said.

He went on to say, “Regardless of who emerges victorious at the [PNC/R] congress…they will fall back to the same kind of rhetoric because they have no vision, they have no track record and they’re unwilling to do what it takes to reposition this party in the future.”
Recently, the PNC/R churned out a series of promises that are quite similar to the ones they made in 2015 and this sort of mimicking by the party has not slipped past the eyes of Guyanese.
Just like in 2015, the PNC/R has made bold promises of increases in salaries, pensions, job creation and free university education.

However, with their previous stint in office, their track record is still fresh in the minds of citizens and Dr Jagdeo highlighted that even the miners who threw their support behind the former coalition administration were left on the backburners as that former government increased the royalty rates, Value Added Tax (VAT) on machinery, among other measures.
He pointed out the Coalition’s failure to deliver on its promise to liberalise the telecommunication and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

“…The whole five years they didn’t do it. We did that when we got back in office – three months after we got back in office. We had left even the legislation for them. In fact, the legislation was already tabled in parliament. They never did it in the five years, and they promised it in 100 days,” Dr Jagdeo firmly stated.
As he went through the Opposition’s promises both in 2015 and now, he said, “So this is the same old worn APNU. They’re putting out these things. Nobody believes anything that they say.”

While using evidence to support his point that the PPP is working to better the lives of the people, the PPP General Secretary stated: “For four years, if you look at everything we’ve promised in our manifesto – housing, fifty thousand. We’re already on track to deliver that; scholarships, 20,000 in our manifesto, we already have twenty-eight thousand people studying and another 22, 000 through BIT, WIIN, and GROW… paid for, fully, by the Government of Guyana. We promised free university education in five years, we’re on course to delivering that.”