‘Thank You’- PPP General Secretary

Supporters of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) were thanked by PPP General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, for their participation at the 2023 Local Government Elections.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday (June 13, 2023) at the Party headquarters, Freedom House, Robb Street, he said, “I wish today to thank the supporters of the People's Progressive Party for delivering once again a massive and historic victory for the party. Supporters from all over Guyana, from Essequibo; from Berbice; from Region 3, 4, 5, 1; from Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Linden, Kwakwani, almost every part of this country we have seen either an overwhelming victory for the party or massive gains in places where we traditionally were not strong. And so it is only because of those who supported this party, that victory was possible.”

The Party General Secretary also expressed appreciation to the candidates who stood as the Party’s representatives at the recently concluded elections. He said, “I wish to thank all of them. I want to thank the candidates in particular for contesting these elections. On behalf of the Party, I want to congratulate many of them who have done so well. And I hope that in the performance of their duties as Councillors in these Local Government bodies, that they live up to the ideal of the party and the clear message that we sent to them when they chose to be a part of our platform. That is a commitment to the people of our country, all the people of our country, regardless of their race and religion and being faithful to the developmental objec- tives of and aspirations of the people in the communities in which they are going to serve. So, I want to thank the candidates and all the backers, the 26,000 backers who made their candidacy possible.” Jagdeo assured Guyanese that the PPP/C will fulfil its campaign promises.

The PPP General Secretary added that the many behind the scenes workers are also owed a debt of gratitude. “I wish to thank also the workers. People do not know about, sometimes they are behind the scenes, but for every polling place, you almost have an army of people working with them from people who deliver food to the polling agents, providing transportation to take the elderly to vote, the street captains who mobilise people to come out to vote, those who tabulate the vote, a number of others. There are large numbers of people who work on these important logistics and without them too, the victory that we have would not have been possible. So, I wish to thank them.”

He added, “There are many leaders who are Ministers, Members of Parliament and other leaders, who waged a vigorous campaign and often had to give inordinate amount of time both to their official duties and also to campaigning and assisting in organising the campaign. And so it's a large number of people who work very hard to bring about this massive victory.”

Part Of The Ppp Family

Acknowledging the many persons who crossed over from the PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition to the PPP/C, Jagdeo hailed their bravery in the face of harassment from the Coali - tion. “I want to say a special thank you today, apart from the traditional supporters, to those who came across, who were formerly APNU leaders or supporters. Many for decades, and some of them for all their lives who voted for APNU and they came across, they accepted our invitation to come into our lives…I said a special thank you to them because I'm very much aware of the kind of personal vilification that they have had to endure from the leaders of APNU, many of their vile local leaders and activists and the abuse, the lies, the racism often that they had to face. And must have been particularly hard for them. And that's why today I wanted to thank them…we appreciate every bit of their support and we appreciate the chance they took because it was not easy having heard so many bad things, rumours about us, many of them must have been tentative, but I'm sure they gave a great thought to this issue and today they will find the warmth of the PPP family having come to us.”

He made clear that the PPP/C welcomes the support of all Guyanese and would welcome them with open arms. “Those who have come across the leaders, those who voted for us, supported us, work for us, who are formerly part of another party. They are being accepted wholeheartedly into this PPP family. They are our family now,” he stressed.

No Major Incidents

Further, barring minor hiccups that were resolved, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was also commended for its work in being able to hold the 2023 Local Government Elections.

“I think we should be proud of ourselves and we should thank the Guyana Elections Commission for doing a good job in the conduct of the polls. So far and during the course of yesterday, we saw some minor difficulties that with the help of some officials of GECOM who were diligent, those issues were resolved. It was not that there weren't instances of misunderstanding and not following the procedures that were laid down by the Chief Elections Officer. However, when those were brought to the attention of the officials and the Ros, and, in most cases, those were resolved. And therefore, our assessment of the conduct of the poll is that it was well organised and it was completed, without major incidents,” he said.

Memorable Campaign

The 2023 Local Government Elections, according to the PPP General Secretary, was memorable. He said, “I was so pleased with the campaign. It's a memorable campaign and it was characterised by a lot of hard work, enthusiasm, energy, liveliness. It was all positive.It was on message.

“If anyone looks at our campaign, throughout the country almost in every instance, you saw a great deal of energy and vigour and people who were steered away from the dungeons of rumour and racism and raised our campaign to a lofty level, a campaign of bringing people together across races and staying on message of development in every community….wherever the campaign meetings were held, whether in Berbice, Essequibo or Linden or here in Georgetown, it was all positive.

“It was not the vile sort of campaign that we've come to associate with the PNC and APNU. And for that reason, it's memorable and also we are proud of it, extremely proud of the campaign and all of those who waged that campaign.”

Already, the ERC has been called on to investigate the APNU’s play of the race card to hype up Guyanese along ethnic lines in a bit to have them vote in their favour.