At the upcoming polls, it is expected that Guyanese will no longer vote along ethnic lines, but rather, choose a political party based on track record and policies.
This view was expressed by People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Executive member Anil Nandlall during his programme ‘Issues in the News’ on Tuesday.
Nandlall noted that the policies and programmes of the PPP/C have led to many traditional supporters of the People’s National Congress (PNC)-led by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), now endorsing his party.
The PNC, he said, “know once the people become enlightened, then the chains of racial voting and ethnic voting will be broken, and if those chains of ethnic and racial voting are broken, that is the end of the PNC.”
Nandlall highlighted that some inroads were already made in the 2023 Local Government Elections.
He referred to the fact that the PPP/C was able to gain seats on several Town Councils traditionally led by the APNU, including in Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Bartica and Mahdia. Similar trends were observed on some Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs).
“The momentum was building, and now it has developed into a crescendo, and you are seeing aggregate impact now,” Nandlall emphasised.
“There is every reason for non-traditional supporters to support the PPP,” he added.
Nandlall, who is also the country’s Attorney General, referred to the reversal of over 200 taxes implemented by the former APNU+AFC Government during 2015 to 2020, including the reversal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on water, electricity, data, educational supplies, pharmaceuticals, agricultural products and more.
“People felt these things. People felt it from all divides,” Nandlall pointed out.
After being re-elected to office in 2020, the PPP/C also reversed the increase in land rentals for rice farmers, reinstituted and drastically increased the ‘Because We Care’ cash grants for nursery to secondary school students and further extended the programme to cover the private schools in Guyana.
The cash grant was first implemented in 2014 but was discontinued by the APNU+AFC government after they won the 2015 elections. It was replaced by the 3Bs programme intended to provide buses, boats and bicycles for students.
However, Nandlall said during community meetings in some traditional opposition-based strongholds, residents revealed that no one benefited from the programme.
“I don’t know who got the bicycle, I don’t know who got the boat, I don’t know who got the bus,” he said.
The former government also promised a reduction in tuition fees for the University of Guyana but did not do so.
They also promised to provide jobs for youths but instead told persons to go sell plantain chips.
They also sent thousands of workers on the breadline by shutting down four sugar estates and terminating the services of Community Support Officers.
In contrast, Nandlall noted that over the past five years, the PPP/C has made UG tuition as well as technical institutes free, printed and distributed free textbooks, established the Government Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) through which 39,000 students have graduated from various international universities, moved to cover the cost for upto eight CSEC and CAPE subjects, provide cash grants for newborn babies, increased public sector wages, distributed over 50,000 house lots to applicants, reinstated the bonus for the Disciplined Services, commenced distribution of a universal healthcare voucher, doubled old age pension, and much more to increase disposable income for all Guyanese.
“So when a politician goes around and talks about a different reality, you see how they are ostracising themselves from their supporters because the people are living a different reality and the people know that couple years ago, you were there, you never did anything for [them],” Nandlall emphasised.
As more persons, including politicians, switch sides to endorse President Dr. Irfaan Ali for a second term, Nandlall said, “We are welcoming them because our objective is to create a national party.”
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