Dear Editor,
I attended the last four PPP Congresses but am not going to the present one at the Convention Center in Liliendaal. I am disappointed in the leadership for broken promises. And I find the instructions on who to vote for at the Congress for Central Committee [CC] quite repulsive. Also, the 3,000 delegates were not chosen on merit and a fair process but for their loyalty to certain individuals, not the least being the President and the Vice President. That is not party democracy at work.
Democracy is not at play at the PPP Congress. As Rajendra Bissessar pointed out (SN May 3), the selection of delegates as well as the election of members to the Central Committee are not free and fair. The PPP had demanded free and fair elections between 1968 thru 1992 and again in 2020. But the party does not adhere to the same rules it demands of the PNC, APNU, and AFC. The voting process at the Congress, and even in the selection of members to the Executive Committee as well as choosing the Presidential candidate, is rigged – not much different from rigging of general elections.
We were always instructed how to vote, and after we cast the vote, the counting was never transparent. It was always done behind closed walls with results never verified even when questioned. My father told me that Comrades Cheddi and Janet used to send word around who to vote for. After the death of Cheddi and Janet, the numbers would be made up on who were selected on the CC. The process was never democratic; transparency was never a part of the voting process. The leadership selected the CC and the CC members were instructed who to vote for to make up the Executive Committee and the Presidential candidate.
This year, the old guard will be gone. Honest, hardworking members of the party will be replaced by bourgeois elements. Delegates are instructed to reject the old guard. As for governance, I am disappointed because the party leadership has failed to honour promises made on the eve of the March 2020 elections. Promises were made when our party was in opposition between May 2015 and March 2020 and these are yet to be honoured.
We worked very hard to get the votes out for the party in the March 2020 elections. And during the five months period when attempts were made to rig the election, commitments were made to the ballot box protectors who showed up in numbers to guard against rigging. People stood watch night and day, in rain and sun, and during Covid. The commitments made to them were also not honoured. Today, all of us are poorer than we were before the election. We wasted our time, resources, and energy behind the party. The ballot box protectors and several of those who volunteered during the recount process openly criticize the President and VP. They can’t wait for the next election to show their dissatisfaction.
Sincerely,
Sharmila Ally
