PPP hints at two-pronged strategy to counter coalition

Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 February 2015, 17:31 by GxMedia

The incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) on Tuesday suggested that Guyanese might continue to vote along racial lines and that the Alliance For Change would be decimated at the upcoming elections because it has teamed up with A Partnership for National Unity (APNU),

“I think the AFC has signed their death warrant meaning they are quite likely to be the biggest losers in an elections that is going to be hotly contested in a two-way fight,” PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee told a news conference.

Referring to the historical position of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) that it expected Guyanese to cease voting race and instead support calls for a government of national unity, he suggested that voters might retain that position at the May 11, 2015 polls.

“Experience has shown that instead of the people warming to that kind of notion they instead backed from it away and continued with certain voting patterns. Let’s wait and see what will happen here. I am not predicting that will happen but voters are voters. They are quite intelligent and smart people,” he said.

Following last Saturday’s Valentine’s Day “Cummingsburg Accord” between AFC and APNU, the PPPC has begun unleashing its propaganda mainly against the AFC which targets mainly disaffected PPPC supporters in Corentyne and Essequibo.

The PPPC’s message to its supporters appears to be two-pronged: 1.  AFC and APNU have blocked major infrastructural projects like the Specialty Hospital, Amaila Falls Hydropower Project and the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) 2. AFC has broken its promise that it would not team up with either the PPPC or APNU.

“What is energizing is our experience we had the parliament where all our developmental projects were being blocked and where the one-seat majority or the uncontrollable horse was let loose on the people of Guyana so our supporters and our members do not want a return to that situation,” he said.

In a separate statement to the media, Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy lambasted the AFC for apparently breaching the trust of its mainly rural East Indian supporters. “Now everyone knows the truth – APNU and the AFC had a deal and developed a strategy for the AFC to focus their attention in the PPP strongholds. Now in APNU’s 2015 campaign they intend to use AFC leaders to represent APNU in the PPP stronghold.bWhy such blatant lies to innocent people? Quite simply, it is because of the lure of power,”  said Ramsammy.

The AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan has, however, argued that his party has bargained in the coalition negotiations for the ministries of Home Affairs and Agriculture to address major security concerns and problems in the rice and agriculture sectors in its strongholds of the Corentyne and Essequibo.