The United Republican Party (URP) has recently revitalised its membership and has announced that it will be contesting the 2015 General and Regional Elections.
Established in the USA in March 1985, the party was launched in Guyana in May 1986 and formally registered on April 26, 1988, a press release said. Incorporating the motto: ‘Onward, upward may we every go! United we stand, divided we fall! Equal rights and justice for all’ and utilising the symbol of the “cow head”; the URP says it intends to continue the fight for “real democracy, transparent and accountable government.”
The URP submitted that all four pillars of Guyana are very weak; these are politics without ethics, religion without tolerance, Science without spirituality and actions without sympathy and empathy. According to the group, these issues can be addressed with a URP government that will include all other political parties in shared governance and racial integration. Further it is advocating for constitutional reform and the setting up of a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’, freedom of speech and freedom of association, the restoration of justice, law and order, equal rights, better health and education systems, job creation and expanded social services, the development of a green economy and manufacturing sector.
In 1985, URP Founder/Chairman Vishnu “John” Bandhu and a team started the party across the USA and Canada, later travelling to Washington, DC to lobby the US Congress for “the restoration of democracy” in Guyana. In November 1987 the party was formally launched in Guyana at its Croal Street, Stabroek location.
