Guyanese should ensure that the PPP/C is returned to office with at least 60 percent of the votes, as a fitting send off to the country’s “living legend” Bharrat Jagdeo, PPP/C member Collin Croal urged last evening.
Croal ,who was the chairperson at a PPP/C public meeting in Bourda, called on voters to ensure that the PPP/C majority increased from the 54% recorded at the last elections to at least at 60 percent. “Let’s give the living legend a fitting send off,” Croal said. He also urged them to secure Region 4 (Demerara/Mahaica) for the incumbent. “Let’s take away control of Region 4 from their palms,” Croal urged. Region 4 is traditionally a PNCR stronghold. Croal also encouraged supporters not to wait until Monday to verify the place where they will be voting and called on them to come out early.
Addressing a modest gathering at the John Forde Car Park at the junction of Church Road and East Street, PPP/C executive member Dr Roger Luncheon said that Guyanese appreciated the efforts of Jagdeo and called on the electorate to vote for Donald Ramotar for continuity and a sure future. Lauding the achievements of the PPP/C administration, Luncheon said of Jagdeo: “A living legend is being created in our midst” adding that the evidence was there for all to see.
Luncheon, who was the longest speaker, called on Guyanese to reject the rhetoric of the opposition parties which say that a 1992 moment was at hand where then incumbent (the PNC) was voted out. Guyanese, he stated, had voted the PPP/C back in office at the 1997, 2001 and 2006 elections when the party hadn’t even achieved as much as it has in 2011. “From 1992 to 2011…this party in government has indeed fulfilled its mandate,” Luncheon said, adding that it contains a report card that indicates “progress in every conceivable area”. “It is this scorn for the common sense of the Guyanese people that is most offensive,” he said. Guyanese, Luncheon said, would vote for the PPP/C because they believe in justice, are grateful and do not have short memories.
The party’s presidential candidate Donald Ramotar, who was the evening’s second speaker, plugged the PPP/C’s record over the past 19 years and said that the PNC has sought to disguise its poor record by changing its name to APNU. “The PNC ran down our country in 28 years,” Ramotar said. He pointed to several areas of development that the PPP/C has piloted since assuming office including the education and health sectors. While Ramotar was speaking a blue jeep plastered with APNU placards circled the block twice dragging an enamel cup on a string, tickling many of those gathered.
Speaking about the developments in the health sector , Ramotar said that there were now many modern hospitals and referred to an incident reported years ago in the Stabroek News where a patient was attacked by rodents while at the Georgetown Public Hospital. He described Stabroek News as “a newspaper that never liked the PPP whether in Opposition or in Government”.
“We are still a poor country. We are still a poor developing country because we have begun from a low base,” he said, adding that Guyana was performing well compared to other Caribbean countries. Speaking about the future, Ramotar spoke about the Amaila Falls Hydropower project and identified the mining sector as another key area in the job creation process. Ramotar left immediately after addressing the audience.
“What the PNC took 28 years to demolish and destroy the PPP took 19 years to revive,” PPP/C stalwart Gail Teixeira said. She described the PPP as a faithful party that can be trusted.
Speaking particularly to women, Teixeira said that the party was committed to helping all women, particularly the vulnerable. Women, she stated, are still lagging behind men in many areas despite them being in many cases better educated than men. “I say to every woman, the sky is the limit,” she declared, adding that the government was there to support them.
Throughout Teixeira’s speech a female vagrant approached the platform , backed Teixeira and began consuming a mango.
Meantime, former AFC member Gaumatie Singh urged the gathering to ignore the AFC and vote for the PPP/C because of the widespread development that has taken place over its 19 years in office.
“The key can’t open your lock. You have to have your own key to open up your lock not theirs,” she said. Singh also criticized the AFC for having several persons not living in Guyana on their lists of candidates saying that they were not in a position say how Guyana should be governed.
“Guyanese who live in American can’t come and tell us how to run Guyana,” she said.
