PPP/C General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo last night joined his party’s Georgetown candidates in an appeal for votes to secure its first majority at the Mayor and City Council in over 57 years.
Better management and transparency of city hall revenues, improved drainages and roads, and infrastructural development were among the promises made during a community meeting at Ninth Field, Cummings Lodge.
“The face of the city is changing and you will need that business-like approach in managing the affairs of the city and the team that we are putting together has that approach. They have the vision and the competence to deliver a new management for a new city,” Jagdeo, who is also Guyana’s Vice President, said to a cheering crowd.
The PPP/C launched a fierce campaign in strongholds of the APNU+AFC opposition and has since been urging all citizens to go to polls next Monday, June 12. The party even recruited former city mayor Patricia Chase-Green, broadcaster Malcolm Ferreira, councillor Trichia Richards and other prominent personas in other parts of the country, in a bid to sway the votes in its favour.
“I urge you on June 12th, ensure it is a historic day. It is the day the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic will take Georgetown… We are counting on all of you to ensure we put down this day in history,” Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water Suzan Rodrigues said, urging citizens to throw their support behind the party’s candidates. Residents were told to use the national development taking place as a gauge of what can happen under a PPP/C leadership in the municipality.
Constituency six candidate Param Persaud told supporters and his fellow community members that the party needs their vote to secure a majority in the council. This, he said, will give them a better opportunity of representing their needs as previous representations were voted down due to their minority.
The current council comprises 22 APNU councillors, six PPP councillors and two AFC councillors. The PPP/C is aiming for a 16-seat majority on the new council.
Persaud, who is a current member of the M&CC said the municipality was incompetent in governing the affairs of the city.
“If we cannot get 16 councillors we can’t get [support]. Whenever we make representation for our community they always vote we out, so we have come out in our numbers and vote for a change. If you want to see development in your community you have to come out and vote,” Persaud urged.
“If we sit and don’t come out and vote… we have to suffer a next three years with an incompetent city council.”
Though he did not disclose any developmental plans, he pleaded, “Just give us three years and let us prove that we can make a difference and if we can’t prove ourselves in that three years you have the opportunity, the next election, to vote us out.”
Change campaign
Stating that the PPP/C candidates are competent and eager with the ability to run their own campaigns, Jagdeo said their support at these meetings is an illustration of the support they will receive when elected into office.
He stated too that in the municipalities of Linden, Bartica, New Amsterdam and Georgetown, they are waging a “change campaign “which requires support on the podiums.
Jagdeo said that the PNC/R leadership in the municipalities failed to deliver on years of promises and improvements despite strong support from the electorate. He told the constituents to cast their votes on the grounds of trustworthiness, their belief in the people that can deliver and their track record of delivering on promises.
“Give us one chance for us to show what we can do in the city… We can walk away and do the unthinkable in Guyana’s history, which is to take Georgetown. It’s a tall order but we are up to the challenge,” Jagdeo pleaded.
He told those in attendance that his party is prepared to work towards the transformation and delivery of a higher level of community lifestyle. He stated that they will be looking at drainage, hinting at concrete drains in communities and plans to have more roads constructed in every constituency.
“If you have a road now that’s bad, it’s going to be fixed,” Jagdeo said to screams from a section of the crowd. “…All of those issues, putting in more pumping capacity to get the water out faster in the city, concrete drains, a whole range of stuff; we will clean up the city.”
He promised to make the city accountable, give “account for every cent” and have all City Hall meetings live streamed so residents can monitor what is taking place.
Stating that next Monday’s local elections matter now more than ever, he urged that every eligible member of a household should go out and vote.
“This is how we can effectively have transformation and a change in the city that the residents so badly need. We are on a mission to transform in these areas. Our mission is to transform the lives of people right across Guyana,” he asserted.
The PPP/C is the only political party contesting all 80 of the local government areas with over 26,000 backers and Jagdeo noted that it had already won 291 of the 610 constituencies or 13 of 80 local government areas because no other party was ntesting those areas.
