RECENTLY I read somewhere in the media an observation by a writer who claims that the PPP’s concept of democracy is limited to citizen participation solely at the time of elections.

For the purpose of the records anyone who is of that view is obviously not acquainted with the PPP’s concept of democracy nor its modus operandi in respect to democratic practices internally within the Party and when translated into practice at the level of Government.

Since 1973, the PPP was the sole political force in this country fighting for free and fair elections. In fact, there was a period during the heyday of the Burnham dictatorship when no other force save the PPP had the “cohones” to fight for free and fair elections in Guyana.

Later this struggle was joined by the Working People’s Alliance and certain other marginal political and social forces.

It must be emphasized that even in those early days the Guyanese diaspora, organized principally through painstaking work done by Dr Cheddi Jagan, played a critical role in influencing public opinion in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom to support the struggle at home.

As the struggle intensified internally the Committee in Defense of Democracy and later, the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy (PCD) as well as a number of civic minded persons emerged on the scene and waged pitched batter before the 1980 Referendum and the 1992 elections. The main platform of these two bodies was to push for democracy and free and fair elections nationally and to win support for its