“It was a massive sweep” – PPP/C claims it won 48 out of 71 LAAs

At a press conference held moments ago, the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic  has claimed that of the 71 Local Authority Areas (LAAs) that were contested at the recently held local government polls, 48 were won by the PPP/C and 7 were tied.

Central Committee Member, Ganga Persaud said based on the figures acquired by the Party’s agents, the PPP/C received 75 percent of the total support. As such the results are: 48 LAAs were won by the PPP/C, 16 were won by the APNU/AFC and 7 areas were tied – a total of 71 LAAs.

Persaud added that the results of the just concluded Local Government Elections has demonstrated once again that the party continues to be ‘a formidable political force’ in Guyana. “From our vantage point it was a massive sweep for the PPP/C,” he added.

Meanwhile, it is expected that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will make the Official Results known soon since Returning Officers from the various regions have made their declarations.

Here is an edited version of the PPP/C statement:

The results of the just concluded local government elections has demonstrated once again that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) continues to be a formidable political force in Guyana.

Despite the unwarranted attacks and falsehoods leveled against the Party before and after the May 2015 elections the Party continues to enjoy the confidence and support of the broad masses of the Guyanese working people.

The results of the elections clearly demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of electors cast the punishment vote against the APNU+AFC expressing their rejection and dissatisfaction with the broken promises and vindictive policies that have brought about untold sufferings on the working man and woman.

By the use of ballot, the electors rebuffed Granger’s call for total control by the APNU+AFC coalition administration of Central Government, Parliament and Local Government.

The people did not allow this to happen because they still have fresh in their memories the theft of PPP/C votes on May 11, 2015 by Gecom in collaboration with APNU+AFC operatives within  Gecom’s apparatus, the cancellation of the many social benefits for school children, single parents and pensioners,the heartless decision to close the Wales Sugar Estate and placing in jeopardy the livelihood of rice farmers; the dismissals from their jobs of thousands of Amerindians and public servants, the humongous salary increases awarded to non-performing Ministers and the most recent burdensome and onerous tax measures foisted on the backs of the Guyanese working people.

In those Local Authority Areas where the APNU+AFC claimed they “won” the Party reiterates the view that the blatant and scandalous vote-buying efforts through the distribution of G’s 3Bs coupled with the shameless and barefaced abuse of state resources by the APNU+AFC was substituted for serious political work and as social bribes as a means to achieve these phyrric electoral victories.

The claim by arm-chair political pundits that Candidates did not do their work is first and foremost, relevant to the APNU+AFC and their phony NGOs and whom was given coverage by government officials and Ministers and the President himself who were out in the fields either threatening, intimidating and doling out cash grants, contracts and promises of government services to fix problems affecting the electors.

Secondly, this unsubstantiated proposition and flimsy excuse smacks of another attempt to conceal, if not ignore, Gecom’s inadequacies and Bulkan’s failure to provide user-friendly and appropriate voter-education material to excite the electorate to actively participate in the local government elections.

As regards the low turn out of voters, the blame game that has erupted between Gecom, the Ministry of Communities, the Ministry of the Presidency, and the Private Sector Commission and some of the phony NGO’s  set up by the APNU+AFC is a zero-sum game and will get us nowhere. The guiltyparties should all take responsibility and fix the problem to make sure it never happens again.

In this connection, the media must also assume some responsibility; instead of providing information and guidelines as a public service, sections of the print and electronic media chose to use the local government elections as a political football to reflect their political preferences.