PPP Executive Secretary Zulfikar Mustapha says that the party’s alliance with its Civic component remains healthy although he added that it was not opposed to adjusting the group’s role and having it become more inclusive of other stakeholders in the future.
Mustapha told Stabroek News on Monday that at the PPP’s upcoming 30th Congress, slated for August 2 to 4 at Port Mourant, Berbice, the role of the Civic will be reiterated. “The alliance is a very healthy alliance between the PPP/Civic. It has served us well and we will continue with it,” he said. Mustapha noted that many members of the Civic are members of the government, but added that their membership was not limited to the government.
He said the Civic was kept active through routine meetings. Mustapha did not disclose which members of the Civic component met with PPP executive and when, but he did note that it was regularly done.
At its 24th Congress in 1991, the PPP approved the alliance and the PPP/Civic ran in the 1992 election as a new entity. The civic branch became inclusive of most notably Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Dr Nanda Gopaul, who was a well known trade unionist at the time.
Both men came from the Guyanese Action for Reform and Democracy (GUARD) political movement.
