Expressing optimism of victory at the upcoming elections, the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) yesterday launched their campaign to regain office, with General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo launching blistering attacks on the government for their failings and presidential candidate Irfaan Ali saying that under his leadership, the country will be transformed.
To thousands of red-clad supporters at one of the party’s historical urban strongholds, Kitty, party leaders made their case as to why they should be elected to office on March 2nd. As speaker after speaker rose, they each expressed optimism of victory at the elections, with Ali even addressing the rally “as your next president.” The party’s prime ministerial candidate, Brigadier (rtd) Mark Phillips was also formally introduced to supporters since being selected on Friday.
The upcoming election comes at a critical time in Guyana’s history as the country becomes an oil producer. The next government will manage unprecedented revenues, with the growth of Guyana’s economy set to skyrocket and the winner of the elections will likely set the direction of development for the country for years to come.
In this regard, the speakers sought to underline that revenues would be better managed under a PPP/C government. A fired-up Jagdeo, pointing to the absence of a local content policy, accused the APNU+AFC government of not looking out for Guyanese and said the administration “sold us out in the oil and gas sector.
“The foreigners are gonna come in and use up all the opportunities if you don’t get a PPP government back in place to look out for us,” he said to the roaring crowd. Jagdeo’s popularity with the party’s supporters was evident as the cheers for him were more than all the other speakers including Ali.
The rally followed the PPP/C’s standard strategy of deploying Jagdeo to attack while other speakers struck a more conciliatory tone, and the former president wasted no time in doing so. Firstly, however, he thanked supporters for standing by their side “in these difficult years” even as he said that others were returning. He welcomed back “all of those who may have left us because they believed… the many promises made to them in 2015 by the APNU.” He said that although many including pensioners, farmers, miners, and others voted “overwhelmingly” for the coalition, the government never kept their promises. “You are welcome in this family,” he said.
He sought to appeal to Afro-Guyanese. According to Jagdeo, the PPP is a party for all the people and only when it was in office has Guyana moved forward. He appealed to Afro-Guyanese to look at the party’s policies and record. “This party is the natural home for Afro-Guyanese too because it is a party that believes in progress, poor people, everyone else,” he said. He added that he can point to more achievements in Linden under the PPP than “this group” (referring to the government) can ever point to.
“We will start from day one to change this country back into a prosperous one…We have the plans, we have outlined the plans, we have the experience in doing so,” Jagdeo said.
He also slammed Granger’s statements on constitutional reform made at the APNU+AFC launch of their elections campaign on Friday. Granger had mentioned that one of the plans the governing coalition has is constitutional reform, which, according to him, will ensure “that nonsense they tried to do to us over the last 12 months doesn’t happen again.” It was in reference to the no-confidence motion of December 18, 2018 that felled the APNU+AFC government.
Jagdeo described Granger’s statement as “ominous.” He claimed that the only thing that Granger wants to change in the Constitution is to get rid of the no-confidence motion. However, he said that the PPP/C will win “and we will keep the no confidence motion.” According to Jagdeo, the PPP/C advanced the most aggressive constitutional reform programme in the past and has outlined a path to the future. In this regard, he said that elements they want to look at include “the electoral system to see how we can be more inclusive, even explore power sharing. We have spoken about management of GECOM, how do we change our Constitution to serve our people.”
Lock-up
Jagdeo also criticised the government on corruption and said that accusations that the PPP/C leaders were corrupt was an invented issue. “They used to say they would lock up PPP leaders. They’ve had five years. They haven’t charged a single PPP leader for having money in an account that they shouldn’t have,” he said. However, according to him, APNU+AFC government is guilty of “wholesale thievery and when we get back in office we’ll expose them and we will do some locking up ourselves…and we will do it with evidence.”
“We have evidence of this…this government is not about, many people think its Afro-Guyanese, you have some corrupt Indo-Guyanese who are with them, who are getting all the contracts, $40 billion to 10 contractors that they give and the small people don’t get anything,” Jagdeo charged.
He said that the PPP/C transformed Guyana without oil money. “Just imagine with our management style what we will do with oil money,” he said.
According to Jagdeo, Ali is capable and he can handle large scale tasks “not because of his size but because of his ability.”
Ali, meantime, addressed the rally “as your next president” and pledged to be a president for all Guyanese. “I commit to be a president that would have the decency…to respect the rule of law, uphold the Constitution and promote democratic governance,” he said.
Though well received by the crowd, Ali struggled to hold their attention and increasingly loud chatter emanated from persons for extended periods as he spoke. The crowd of supporters in the vicinity of the stage was markedly thinner well before he concluded his address.
Questions have been raised about his popularity with the base. Ali is currently facing 19 fraud charges over the allocation of house lots to fellow Cabinet members and other persons in the Pradoville 2 Housing Scheme during his tenure as Housing Minister. The basis of the charges is that the lands were sold far below market value. He has mounted a challenge in the High Court to have the charges dismissed. In August, Ali lost his bid in the Court of Appeal to have the matter stayed after Appellate Judge Dawn Gregory explained that having looked at the merits of the substantive appeal, it was clear that it had no arguable prospect of success. His lawyers have since indicated that they would file another application at the Court of Appeal for a stay.
The presidential candidate has also been dogged by questions about the authenticity of his academic qualifications.
In his address, he also criticised Granger for his comments on constitutional reform. “As your president, no confidence is not nonsense that must be cured by constitutional reform. It is an important check and balance mechanism in a true democracy,” he said while saying that the government was given “the no-confidence boot” in parliament and called on supporters to give them “the people’s no confidence when you evict them from office.”
Anti-crime
Meantime, when called to speak, Phillips approached the podium to applause by supporters, and a standing ovation from those with whom he shared the stage. Setting out his experience, Phillips shared that he served in the military from 1980 to 2016 when he retired after serving as Chief of Staff. He assured supporters that his “solid combination of experience and leadership will help the PPP/C to move Guyana forward.”
Phillips also spoke of plans to address crime in Guyana by implementing an “anti-crime strategy for Guyana,” which he said would be linked to other strategies for employment and poverty alleviation.
