Jagdeo urges supporters to fight injustices lawfully

…confident about a PPP win at 2020 elections
…Harmon insists coalition will govern past 2020

By Michael Younge

In two years, Guyanese will once again have the opportunity to exercise their franchise and either maintain the status quo or create a new political situation in the country when the 2020 General and Regional Elections are constitutionally due.
But Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo is maintaining that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will emerge victorious at those polls once its leadership remains focused on addressing the concerns of the Guyanese public while fighting the increasing levels of injustices committed against hard-working and ordinary Guyanese citizens by the ruling A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For

Change Government.

Protecting the working class
Jagdeo, addressing a gathering at a meeting in La Bonne Intention (LBI), East Coast of Demerara on Thursday said the PPP was a strong and patient party. He said it understood the importance of struggle and perseverance in politics, especially when those who are wielding executive authority are abusing their power and engaging in unconstitutional and illegal acts which place the future of the country on a whole at risk.
The Opposition Leader explained that the PPP fought against the dictatorship of

former Prime Minister and President Forbes Burnham during the tenure of the People’s National Congress and it was successful despite attempts to silence the party and divide it during its early years. He said the PPP was ready to struggle again to protect the rights of all of the working-class people of this country, even though the times are different. Jagdeo told the gathering that his party only required that they remain focused and united over the next two years.
“For many years, we thought that we had struggled enough and the freedoms we enjoyed would always be there forever but we have to get back to the struggle… and if we fought 28 years of dictatorship, we can fight dictatorship again and we will win,” he said to loud applause from the attentive crowd.

Get registered
The PPP General Secretary then urged all those present to get themselves organised, either individually or in groups over the coming weeks in order to

ensure that their names were on the National Voters List (NVL). He said they must also play a role in ensuring that every member of their family, who met the eligibility for registration, according to the laws and rules outlined by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), got registered.
Jagdeo said it was important that those who faced issues at the last General Elections ironed out whatever problems they had now whether it was securing transfers or effecting changes to their misspelt names.
“There is no room for complacency. We must help our brothers and sisters get registered and remain on the Voters List. We must also ensure that we work as a community to resist any illegality or threat our rights. No one will walk over us. We must defend the gains we have made over these last 23 years at the local level,” the PPP General Secretary said.
He also underscored the importance of the community and others along the sugar belt supporting those workers who were dismissed or made redundant by Government and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
“Get them on the Voters List. Let them go and sort out their issues now. Make sure they are all registered to vote. We all need to work together and quietly because the next election is important,” he remarked.
Jagdeo believed that his party’s multi-ethnic composition and multi-ethnic approach to politics would see it being re-elected to Government. He insisted that the PPP’s track record in almost every area of Government outshines the coalition Government’s performance to date.
He maintained that the country was going under and backwards because of the lack of vision on the part of the David Granger led-Administration and their love for corruption and extravagance.
“Ordinary citizens matter. Democracy belongs to them. But the APNU believes that they alone have a right to sovereignty. The ballots of citizens matter and they will learn this. They may have succeeded in fooling people once but now no longer is fooled now and we are seeing their true colours”, he said passionately.
APNU win
But Minister of State and APNU General Secretary Joseph Harmon in an invited comment shared a different view about who may win the next General and Regional Elections. “Based on how we see things and the way in which the population is now responding, we will be here beyond 2020.” He was asked about the plans for expending the monies that would from the oil and gas sectors at the beginning of 2020. Again, he touted the coalition securing of the “good life” for the people through a number of projects which he did not name or describe specifically.