How, not only why, PPP/C will win LGE in a tsunamic sweep

Dear Editor
The Guyanese electorate can be quite sophisticated. Developments around the current LGE campaigns have brought this out in ways that are observable. To find the underlying cause of this, we need to distinguish between WHY the PPP will win and HOW it will achieve its electoral goal — which is to sweep the electoral map.
Why the PPP will win big is well known; namely, that it is a party that keeps its promises to voters. If you review the 2020 election manifesto of the PPP/C, and then check it against what has been transpiring in the country, you will quickly establish that its leaders do what they say they will do.
A combination of 50,000 house lots and homes were promised, and the pace of development in that regard is well on track. Ministers Collin Croal and Susan Rodrigues have silenced every critic on housing.
The PPP/C promised to return the Because We Care grant to Guyana’s children. That promise has not only been kept, but the disbursement is now $40,000 – well above what it was when the APNU-AFC heartlessly stopped it.
The PPP/C promised better road infrastructure, and the progress on that is massive. In addition to hundreds of residential roads, access roads, and farm to market roads, construction or contracts are in place to build the Linden-to-Lethem Road, the East Bank Demerara corridor from Diamond to Timehri, the conversion of the line-top road (ECD) to a four-lane conduit, and of course the continuation of the Ogle-to-Diamond road, eventually leading all the way to Timehri.
Multiple new hospitals are already under construction, and the infrastructure for telemedicine is well underway. Job creation was promised, and the promise has been kept to such an extent that there is a shortage of skilled and qualified Guyanese to fill new positions that are being generated.
Space does not allow for a full review of the promises made and promises kept, but I am sure you get the picture.
Now, let us turn to HOW the PPP/C will record the biggest victory in the history of Local Government Elections in Guyana. The answer is simple, but the details are complex. The HOW of the victory is because the PPP/C is an exceptionally well-organized political party, with an extraordinary ground game. Freedom House has been engaged in detailed election planning for months. Considerable time and energy have been devoted to listening to the electorate through scores of outreach meetings. Meetings with local communities across the country provided detailed information on the priorities of citizens, both at the national and local levels. I attended many of these meetings and can attest to the quality-time spent with citizens across the country.
As an aside, while the PPP/C was doing these outreaches, the PNCR and APNU affiliates were wasting their time around petty issues. More than that, they spent a lot of time trying to convince traditional PNC supporters to refuse new roads, houses, and other benefits desired by the people and delivered to communities across the country.
The PPP/C also invested a lot of time listening to complaints from those within the PNC who no longer had confidence in that party. Many of these folks no doubt heard the promise by President Ali, Prime Minister Phillips, and General Secretary Jagdeo at Babu Jaan and elsewhere, to diversify the PPP/C. Patricia-Chase Green of Georgetown and Jason Ramjohn of Port Kaituma, among several others, took the rational and courageous decision to become PPP/C candidates. Courageous because many former APNU supporters who are now with the PPP/C have expressed feelings of harassment from the party they left behind.
The hard work of the PPP/C has yielded better results than the empty rhetoric of APNU and their absentee supporters in the letter sections.
Finally, the PPP/C will win because it is not only a grassroots party in name, but also in action. The party has activists in every single constituency in Guyana. Go to the most remote part of this country, cut up by giant rivers and insurmountable forests and mountains, and you will find a PPP flag. Not one or two, mind you, but flags and PPP/C posters on light posts, bus stops, tree trunks, private residences; and, as I witnessed with my own eyes in Port Kaituma, flags flying from pickup trucks, SUVs, and cars.
The PPP/C will win because it has a brilliant ground-game that has already been pressed into action. Senior members of the party are across the country providing leadership and support, both logistical and technical, where needed. In the meantime, APNU is busy pulling down those same flags I just mentioned. Their leadership is engaged in an internal struggle rather than being out there with the supporters who are begging for some leadership.
The PPP/C will win a massive victory at the LGE 2023 simply because it is a better political party. And it is a better political party because it has exceptional leadership, and supporters who give their all to defend the democracy we now have.

Sincerely,
Dr Randolph (Randy)
Persaud