-Jagdeo says; debunks their unsubstantiated claims that poverty eradication is not being properly tackled
-highlights increase in employment, strides in housing, health care, education, public sector wages

THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has accused the Opposition of being “divorced from reality,” given their unsubstantiated claim that the government is not properly tackling poverty eradication.

Jagdeo, during a press conference on Thursday at Freedom House, emphasised that successive budgets have consistently targeted poverty alleviation, dismissing opposition claims.

“They are very good at criticising the PPP on poverty, saying – ‘you are not doing enough on poverty. We did not do anything [about] poverty but you are not doing enough.’ Bypassing all that we have done…” Jagdeo said.

The Opposition’s subpar management of Guyana while it was in office from 2015-2020 was also focused on by Jagdeo.

The General Secretary, who also serves as Guyana’s Vice-President, pointed out that thousands of Guyanese were put on the breadline under the APNU+AFC coalition government because of their policies and this figure exacerbated when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. However, when the PPP assumed office in 2020, as Jagdeo highlighted, it got to work on re-employing all of those persons.

He then said: “Now, if more people are working, it means more people are coming out of poverty. We have supported the 15,000 part time workers, they were not working under APNU, now they are working across the country. The 3,000 Amerindians who are CSOs, they never had a job under APNU, they have a job now. “So, if you’re talking about poverty, the key way of getting out of poverty is not by giving handouts. [But] , first of all, ensuring that people have a job.”

Guyana’s unemployment rate has seen a significant decline since the current government took office in 2020.
Over 60,000 new jobs have been created, a stark contrast to the previous administration’s five-year term, which saw a significant loss in employment.

Jagdeo said: “By any standard, any metric, any assessment that is done today in 2025 compared to 2020 when we took office, will find that tens of thousands of Guyanese now are working, more are working both in the public sector and in the private sector.”

He stated that this is a result of the government re-engineering the fiscal environment to stimulate investments.

“Because of this, we saw massive investments coming into the country and in every sector. And that is why you have so many people working today,” the Vice-President said.

He also criticised the Opposition for its comments on a number of government initiatives, especially given that when they were in office, they did not implement policies to bolster the quality of life for citizens.

He responded to the Opposition’s criticisms of the $100,000 newborn cash grant, a landmark initiative aimed at securing the well-being of the nation’s youngest citizens and underscored that there are a plethora of initiatives in the budget that are aimed at enhancing the lives of all.

Jagdeo pointed to the universal health voucher, eye testing, cervical cancer screening as some of the initiatives in the health sector that the PPP government has rolled out.

As for public servants, he said they would have gotten US $500 million more per year since the PPP assumed office in 2020. 40,000 Guyanese would have gotten a house lot, 50,000 persons would have benefitted from government paid scholarships and he pointed out that now, university education is free.

The Vice-President then firmly stated: “They did zero in housing, practically zero in all these areas, no plan for healthcare, they increased the UG fees by 35 per cent when they were in office, but they have a lot of criticisms. They [cannot] craft a plan.”

He then said: “ You tell me, if you’re talking honestly, today, as an ordinary citizen of this country which political party or aspirants into politics now has a plan for the oil and gas sector, as we do for monetising gas, for taking health care and education to a different level, for expanding infrastructure, for diversification of the economy, for adaptation to climate change.

“I can go down the long list. I can tell you what our plans are right here now. Not a single other party can do that and we are in election year already.”

However, what the Opposition will do, according to Jagdeo, is, come together and “cut and paste” concepts and present it as a manifesto.

“That’s not how it works. Any one small party, political aspirants, etc, you can’t just go around posting nice images of yourself. You have to have some substance…,” he firmly stated.