APNU miscalculated, leaving party diminished – Jagdeo

General Secretary (GS) of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has declared that the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) badly miscalculated in aligning itself with the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, a move he said ultimately backfired and weakened their parliamentary standing.
Speaking on the proceeding of Monday’s elections, Jagdeo said APNU has been relegated to third place behind WIN. He explained that several factors contributed to WIN displacing APNU as the second-ranked political force, including APNU supporters seeking an alternative to their party, heavy financial inducements from WIN, and a flashy social media campaign that resonated with young voters.
Jagdeo contended that APNU effectively encouraged its base to lend legitimacy to WIN, believing this would split votes and force the PPP/C into a minority Government. “They tried to soften the image of a criminal-oriented person and lent support to him with the hope that he would displace the PPP. We pointed out it was not going to happen and we were right. They were wrong, and being wrong has consequences,” he asserted.
“Several times at my press conference, I did this, that the WIN party was going to do damage to APNU. And they would do so because of a combination of things. One, that there are several people in APNU who supported APNU in the past who did not want to support APNU again and they were looking for a party that is not the PPP. So, WIN benefited from that. Secondly, they paid out a lot of money. This guy used a ton of money to induce people to vote for him. And thirdly, they were running a social media campaign based on likes, which resonated with a lot of young voters, voters who might be impressionable. And there was a large number, nearly 100,000 new voters on their list,” he added.
The PPP’s GS said the results proved the governing party’s message of performance resonated across the country, citing increased support in Regions One, Eight, and Nine, as well as strong performances elsewhere.

Voter turnout
On voter turnout, Jagdeo acknowledged some complacency among PPP/C supporters due to high confidence in victory, but argued APNU suffered more heavily. “In APNU’s base, a lot of people may have decided they like what the Government is doing and chose not to come out overtly and vote PPP, but instead stayed away from the elections,” he noted.
He also dismissed claims of major inroads by the opposition, stating, “Where is this big denting of the PPP support? It did not happen… We increased our votes in Region Eight. We won it outright. We didn’t win it in 2020. We had 43 per cent of the votes and I think in Region Seven, we’re holding around the same percentage as we got in 2020… They were miscalculating this variable. And APNU was complicit with WIN in that regard. I think they were sharing notes about how that we will be a minority Government,” the GS said. Jagdeo added that while some had pushed a narrative of the PPP/C being reduced to a minority Government, including opposition figures and civil society commentators—Monday’s results proved otherwise. “We said we would win the elections outright, and we did so with a bigger majority,” he declared.