Comment is required on former president Bharrat Jagdeo’s statements about the course he and his party intend to take should the attempts he believes are being made by the government to manipulate the 2020 general and regional elections succeed, for if he is forced to respond in such a negative fashion, there goes the opportunity to optimize the significant wealth fossil fuels are projected to generate.
Mr. Jagdeo threatened a robust response. According to the literature, there are over 100 ways of protesting against an errant government and the managerial infrastructure of modern society is so complicated and interrelated, it appears to me that the PPP/C has far more than the necessary strategically located support to make political management extremely difficult. The PNCR can also attest to the fact that the PPP’s history of struggle against elections wrongdoing has contributed in no small measure to the underdevelopment in which Guyana still wallows, and in these kinds of contests children rarely wish to be outdone by their parents. Many, but essentially APNU+AFC supporters, have condemned the position taken by Mr. Jagdeo, but in my assessment, the evidence suggests that he has good reason to conclude that nefarious electoral shenanigans are afoot, and as the leader of a major political party with only two years to the next elections, the best time to focus attention upon the issue must be now.
At a general level, from its first months in office, the regime began to give ominous signs that supportive public opinion, upon which electoral support depends, was not high on its list of priorities. In opposition it persistently chided the PPP/C for its profligacy, but almost immediately upon taking office allocated itself huge salary increases on the laughable grounds that such increases would help to prevent it from being corrupt. Furthermore, the coalition government still refuses to fulfill core commitments to constitutional reform and the reinstitution of collective bargaining in the public sector!