Former President Bharrat Jagdeo last Friday conceded that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) might have reacted too calmly to the results of last year’s general elections, which it maintains were rigged.
“Maybe our leaders who were making the decisions should have acted differently because sometimes those things work and they get the international community involved.
But I guess the people who made those decisions at that time were guided by a different ethos and so you had not an acceptance of the results, but a decision to move on,” Jagdeo said during a public forum that was organised at Red House to mark the 24th anniversary since the party’s victory at the 1992 general elections, which returned electoral democracy to Guyana.
During his presentation, Jagdeo, the current Leader of the Opposition, said the PPP has continuously demonstrated and proven its “democratic credentials” to the nation, while arguing that the same cannot be said for the People’s National Congress, which is the largest constituent of the APNU half of the governing coalition.
Expounding on this point, Jagdeo alluded to what he says was the PPP’s commitment to free and fair elections, while pointing out what he says was the PNC’s unwillingness to accept the will of the people during the pre-1992 era.
“PNC has consistently taken part in the rigging of elections for the pre-1992 period and even in the post 1992 period, it was evident that they have never really changed because in every one of those elections up to 2006, they consistently refused to accept the will of the people,” he said.
“We saw the marches, the blocking of roads, the burning of building, and the beating of people…all those things took place in that party. Just contrast what would have happened in 2015 had APNU been in the position of the PPP, where the difference in the votes were just over 4,000… what would have happened in this city?” he questioned.
It was on that note that he acknowledged the views of some who believe the PPP had acted too calmly after what the party maintains were “rigged elections.”
Jagdeo also said that he believed that many of the party’s supporters were lost due to what he described as relentless messages being spewed by the present day government about the PPP being involved in corruption.
This being said, Jagdeo stated that while the coalition government continues to accuse the PPP of being corrupt while in office, he is adamant that a fact-based analysis would not support such an accusation. “We will dismantle every single accusation that they have made against us; we will take them on with the facts and figures,” he declared.
Additionally, he took the opportunity to express his confidence that the PPP will reclaim those supporters they would have lost, particularly the younger generation, as he believes they would have had a chance to compare for themselves the policies of the two parties while in office.
