…membership growing, as APNU/AFC betray principles – Jagdeo
People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo is optimistic of his party’s chances in this year’s Local Government Elections (LGE).
The party’s leader addressed the question of his party’s participation in the upcoming elections. Jagdeo expressed indifference to what opposing parties’ do, as he maintained that his party would win massively.
“I believe that you have a large number of people who supported APNU, who genuinely believed that they were going to make a difference in their lives and who are totally disappointed because they believed that they are going to fight corruption, because they made a big issue about corruption and they are totally disappointed.”
AFC Chairman Raphael Trotman
Jagdeo pointed to the lack of investments, the billions in new taxes being collected and broken promises to the youths. According to him, the party has been approached by many disillusioned former supporters of the coalition party.
“And I made it clear that the PPP is open to people. It was set up as a working-class party. It was not set up as a party based on race, but class based. We are working class, but we support the Private Sector. And we support people of every race and every religion would find a home in the PPP.”
The General Secretary noted that efforts will be doubled to make the Party’s composition more diverse.
“We’re hoping that we can work more to get more Afro-Guyanese into the PPP, because our support is predominantly Indo-Guyanese and a lot of Amerindians… maybe 70 per cent. So we have to do harder work in the Afro-Guyanese communities, to make sure more people come into the Party, so that the Party looks like Guyana.”
“And we’re making a serious effort to do this, because we genuinely believe that’s the only way forward. Guyana can only move forward and realise all of its potential if everybody is included. So yes, we have seen more people.”
AFC split
Since it made a pact with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the Alliance For Change (AFC) has been a faithful partner to the larger party. It even contested the 2016 LGE as a coalition. But last week, the party suddenly indicated that it may split from APNU for this year’s election.
Offering his opinion on the AFC’s intimation that they may contest the elections on their own, Jagdeo described it as an attempt to reconnect to its grass roots ground support. According to the former President, however, the junior coalition partner has more than lost touch with its grass roots.
“You want to bet they’re not going to go separately. And if they go separately, it does not matter. And now (AFC Chairman Raphael) Trotman belatedly admitting, we may have lost touch a bit with people on the ground. It’s not the bit of touch that you’ve lost. You’ve betrayed all the principles that people who voted for you stood for. That’s their biggest beef with the AFC.”
Local Government elections are expected to be held later this year, after a two-year interval. In the 2016 Local Government Election, the PPP won the majority of popular votes and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils.
