‘Security forces prepared to deal with anyone who disrupts peaceful elections’ – PPP GS warns opposition

General Secretary (GS) of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Bharrat Jagdeo, on Sunday warned opposition parties that the “security forces are ready to take on anyone who tries to disrupt the peaceful polls in these upcoming elections”.
According to Jagdeo, APNU leader Aubrey Norton has threatened that there will be problems in the country if his party does not win the upcoming elections.
Similarly, Azruddin Mohamed, who is sanctioned by the US for gold smuggling and public corruption, has claimed a poll shows that he will win the presidency and that there will be trouble in Guyana if he doesn’t.
“I want to promise them that in case they try to create trouble when they are defeated by this massive victory of the PPP, they’re going to get into big trouble,” Jagdeo told supporters at a massive Election Rally held at Stewartville, West Coast Demerara (WCD).
The PPP/C GS reminded of the events in 2020 when the APNU/AFC regime attempted to steal the elections but the party took them on, rising to every challenge and defeating them – something they are ready to do once again.
“And so, we have to be careful about these people. They are losing it now,” he added.
On this note, the PPP/C GS emphasised the importance of the upcoming elections, stressing that everyone has a stake and should think about what their lives would have been like without the PPP/C in office over the last five years.
Noting that citizens already had a taste of this in 2015, Jagdeo urged Guyanese to head to the polls on September 1 and ensure the PPP/C return to office to continue delivering development to the country and its people.

On the side of the people
“You know that our party will always be on the side of the people; that we’d always work day and night to ensure your concerns become our policies,” Jagdeo told supporters.
He said that on September 1, the party is looking to secure a huge, decisive and overwhelming victory, but this can only be possible with citizens’ support.
Heading into the upcoming polls, the GS acknowledged that many Guyanese are convinced that the PPP/C Government did its job over the last five years and have heard the party’s plans for the next term to change lives, communities and the country – from cash grants, increase in pensions; more money for children; support to build homes or buy lands or improve homes; plans for communities – better drains, lights, security camera, garbage collection; more and better paying jobs, better transportation and improved services like healthcare and education.
According to Jagdeo, persons have been assured that these will be accomplished because the PPP/C has demonstrated that when it promises something, it delivers.

Discrimination, hardship under APNU+AFC regime
Jagdeo used the platform to address all demographic group, highlighting what he described as discrimination under APNU+AFC’s 2015–2020 tenure. He argued Amerindian communities, Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese, miners, farmers, and youth had all faced hardships under the Opposition but were now seeing tangible benefits under the PPP/C.
“Every group of Guyanese has a home in the policies of the People’s Progressive Party,” he said, stressing investments in land distribution, scholarships, grants for children, job creation, and infrastructure.
“Everyone has a stake in these elections. If you’re an Amerindian Guyanese, you think without the PPP in office, what your lives will be like. You had a taste of it between 2015 and 2020. When APNU stopped the land titling programme, fired 2,000 Amerindians, stopped any development in those communities, you saw it. You can see it, the acts of discrimination. When in Parliament they said that if Amerindians got more land, they would never be able to benefit from all resources”.
“The discrimination was palpable, rampant, and the Amerindian communities now, you think they’re going to be fooled by a $10,000 payment by Azruddin Mohamed or by the false promises of APNU again? They’ve lived through that. They’ve seen what happened,” he said.

Risking your future
Against this backdrop, he reminded that Azruddin Mohamed’s bid for Presidency is directly linked to selfish pursuits to evade taxes and a US sanction by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
“You think in any other sane country in the world, would he even make it on the ballot? He will not be on the ballot. We know that the US congressmen said that they are linked to Maduro.

They went into the Venezuelan embassy…So would you risk putting your children’s future in their hands? Would you risk putting your own future in their hands? That is what at stake,” Jagdeo said.
Mohamed, who is the Presidential Candidate of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), has been charged for allegedly undervaluing a Lamborghini and submitting falsified documentation to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). The US-sanctioned man was placed on $500,000 bail for tax evasion and fraudulent declaration charges in relation to the purchase of the Lamborghini Roadster SVJ.
The first charge alleged that the 39-year-old on or about December 7, 2020, caused to be made and subscribed, a false declaration to the GRA when he stated on the GRA’s custom declaration form that the purchased amount for the Lamborghini was US$75,300, instead of the true purchase price of US$695,000.
The second charge accuses Mohamed of, on the same date, fraudulently declaring to the Revenue Authority US$75,300 as the purchase price for the luxury vehicle thus resulting in the sum of $383,383,345 in taxes being evaded.
Mohamed, who is also currently facing sanctions by the US Government over gold smuggling and tax evasion allegations, had pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Further, in 2024, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had announced that it sanctioned Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, as well as several of their companies.
According to a statement from OFAC, this is related to the evasion of taxes on gold exports, noting that between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10 thousand kilograms (kg) of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than US$50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana.