PPP/C candidate Manzoor Nadir last evening urged Lodge residents to come out and vote for the incumbent party on Monday, saying voter apathy is a key variable in these elections.
“These elections are about voter apathy,” Nadir said, adding that many people feel that the PPP/C has already won the elections. “I will say to those we only win when you come out on November 28 and put that X next to the cup and secure the victory,” he said to the modest gathering at the corner of John and Joseph Pollydore streets.
Making reference to a statementmade once by US president John F. Kennedy, Nadir said: “The bad politicians are elected by the good people who stay at home. And we know that in Lodge you have good people because they’ve been coming out and voting for the PPP.” He said the party is already sensing victory, but needed persons to come out and vote to secure the win.
Nadir urged residents to vote for the PPP/C government which has transformed the community of Lodge. He said when the PNC left office in 1992, D’Urban Street had 72 pot holes and other areas in the community were consumed by bush. The PPP/C administration has been spreading wealth all around the country, he argued.
He also plugged the government’s One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project, saying that so far 19,000 computers had arrived in the country and are currently being distributed. Currently, there are 6,000 adults learning to use the computer in 35 centres across the country. Over the next five to ten years, he said, 25,000 jobs will be created for Guyanese in the Information Communi-cation Technology sector.
Also addressing the audience was PPP/C candidate Robeson Benn, who said that the government had worked hard to improve security and to reduce poverty. Benn said that the government has reduced poverty from around 88 percent when it assumed office in 1992 to about 22 percent now. The PPP/C, he said, is committed to reducing these figures even further. Regarding security, he charged that since 2006, Guyana is a lot safer since people are not afraid to come out at nights. “We will win again,” he declared confidently.
Benn said that the presidential candidate for A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) David Granger has a lot to answer for. “Granger is the first historian that we know of that says he isn’t interested in the past,” he remarked.
He said that Granger ought to explain several things that happened while he was serving as the security advisor to the previous presidents. “Granger needs to explain how Walter Rodney ended up dead,” Benn said. Benn said Granger should also answer about Jonestown, since he was the security advisor to President Forbes Burnham. Benn also criticised some of APNU’s economic plans, saying that they were not practical.
In the face of some heckling from a few APNU supporters on the scene who were accompanied by children, Benn queried why the adults had their children out heckling and asked why the police was not putting a stop to it. There were also a few children waving PPP/C posters, and at least one child wearing a PPP/C T-shirt. After another Benn query, a few officers went across to the small group who were standing across from the platform.
Meanwhile, Odinga Lumumba called on the gathering not to vote on race. A former PNC member, Lumumba told the gathering that the PNC was trying to confuse voters by focusing on race. “The PNCR would like to confuse you… would like to tell you the only way to support them is that they defending black people,” he said. “Poppycock! Nonsense! The PNC has never defended black people. All the black villages…. all the schools in the villages no roof, all the black villages no water, the PNC has never defended black people,” he charged. The PPP/C, Lumumba said, has represented all races. “All villages today, regardless of race, colour and creed, got fixed roads, got water, got brand new schools,” he declared.
