The PPP today said that the results of the Local Government Elections show that it remains a formidable political force but it says it is still to pronounce on whether the polls have been free and fair.
An edited version of the PPP statement follows:
The results of the just concluded local government elections has demonstrated once again that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) continues to be a formidable political force in Guyana.
Despite the unwarranted attacks and falsehoods leveled against the Party before and after the May 2015 elections the Party continues to enjoy the confidence and support of the broad masses of the Guyanese working people.
The results of the elections clearly demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of electors cast the punishment vote against the APNU+AFC expressing their rejection and dissatisfaction with the broken promises and vindictive policies that have brought about untold sufferings on the working man and woman.
By the use of ballot, the electors rebuffed Granger’s call for total control by the APNU+AFC coalition administration of Central Government, Parliament and Local Government.
The people did not allow this to happen because they still have fresh in their memories… the cancellation of the many social benefits for school children, single parents and pensioners, the heartless decision to close the Wales Sugar Estate and placing in jeopardy the livelihood of rice farmers; the dismissals from their jobs of thousands of Amerindians and public servants, the humongous salary increases awarded to non-performing Ministers and the most recent burdensome and onerous tax measures foisted on the backs of the Guyanese working people.
In those Local Authority Areas where the APNU+AFC claimed they “won” the Party reiterates the view that the blatant and scandalous vote-buying efforts through the distribution of G’s 3Bs coupled with the shameless and barefaced abuse of state resources by the APNU+AFC was substituted for serious political work and as social bribes as a means to achieve these phyrric electoral victories.
The claim by arm-chair political pundits that Candidates did not do their work is first and foremost, relevant to the APNU+AFC and their phony NGOs and whom was given coverage by government officials and Ministers and the President himself who were out in the fields either threatening, intimidating and doling out cash grants, contracts and promises of government services to fix problems affecting the electors.
Secondly, this unsubstantiated proposition and flimsy excuse smacks of another attempt to conceal, if not ignore, Gecom’s inadequacies and Bulkan’s failure to provide user-friendly and appropriate voter-education material to excite the electorate to actively participate in the local government elections.
As regards the low turn out of voters, the blame game that has erupted between Gecom, the Ministry of Communities, the Ministry of the Presidency, and the Private Sector Commission and some of the phony NGO’s set up by the APNU+AFC is a zero-sum game and will get us nowhere. The guilty parties should all take responsibility and fix the problem to make sure it never happens again.
In this connection, the media must also assume some responsibility; instead of providing information and guidelines as a public service, sections of the print and electronic media chose to use the local government elections as a political football to reflect their political preferences.
In this regard, the line was persistently carried that the political Parties should keep out of local government elections, that they were a “huge impediment” and that the elections should be left to groups and individuals to contest. Voters rejected that approach and stuck to what they believed in and trusted. It is for this reason that Benchop and his shady organization among others were rejected.
Moreover, the suspicious and dubious “Vote Like A Boss” non-entity having pumped millions of foreign donors’ money into daily adverts in the print media failed to attract the interest of the electorate with their uninspiring and ineffectual ads.
Sections of the media, especially the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News chose to ignore or editorialize the Party’s weekly press statements and releases and to bury them when they chose to publish parts at pages twenty-one to twenty-four of their respective newspapers.
Take for example this weekend Stabroek News with the screaming headline;
“APNU+AFC sweeps Georgetown, Linden and Bartica Polls”
But why not “PPP sweeps forty-eight (48) of sixty-four (64) Local Authority Areas. APNU+AFC sixteen (16) with seven (7) Local Authority Areas tied?”
Wouldn’t this be more objective and truthful reporting? Or was it that the Stabroek News was fearful of being criticized by the government for being biased in favour of the PPP?
We leave it to the electorate to judge.
Further, Stabroek News in a wicked and obnoxious story chose to highlight Georgetown as though it was the beginning and the end all of local government elections in the country and that the voters in the other Local Authority Areas where the PPP won the overwhelming majority of votes do not matter. This smacks of a subtle racist and discriminatory editorial policy of the Stabroek News.
After all, though Georgetown is important is only one of the seventy-one (71) Local Authority Areas.
Finally, whereas in the past the AFC managed to win some votes on the Corentyne in East Berbice and West Coast Berbice, the local government election results show that the AFC has been completely demolished. It is now self-evident that the AFC has been consummated by the APNU.
This is an obvious reality that the Guyanese electorate has recognized, and this was reflected in the voters moving away from those who once misled them voting instead for the PPP/C resulting in it winning the majority of Local Authority Areas East and West Berbice including the Municipalities of Rose Hall and Corriverton in contradistinction to the much vaunted view that it was the PPP that was not interested in holding local government elections.
Was the elections free and fair? Will the PPP let Surujbally off the hook?
The May 2015 elections and the just concluded local government elections are two separate and distinct events held under different laws and regulations.
In the case of the former, an Election Petition is now in Court and a number of issues have been raised therein seeking remedies. We maintain and still adhere to the view that the Party was cheated and robbed of votes at the May 2015 elections.
The protest against Surujbally will continue. He has not been exonerated in anyway whatsoever. We have always maintained that our focus was on the electoral process, procedures and Gecom’s ability to conduct and supervise free and fair elections and not on personalities.
As to whether the local government elections was free and fair, the Party is yet to conclude its analysis on the matter and this will be based on a close examination of reports brought in by our polling agents and the collective analysis of our Commissioners.
