Corrupt and despotic PPP leadership fear loss of party control with Local Govt. elections
Dear Editor,
In 1992, the current hijackers of the PPP leadership, secure in power through a manipulated congress election in 2013 were in love with elections. Today, they will fight to their dying breath to prevent local government elections. Some have alluded to the despotic nature of the current PPP leadership as the reason for this refusal to call local government elections.
They are correct. However, I feel the bigger reason is the fear of the PPP leadership of a loss of power from local government elections. There are many disgruntled PPP members, some of whom have been marginalized, ostracized and rejected by the inner core that controls the party. The padded delegate list that carefully selected and excluded party members, the fact that there were more ballots than voting delegates and the last minute disenfranchisement of delegates at the 2013 PPP congress, mirroring what happened at the 2014 PNC congress, further fueled this outrage.
The current PPP leadership dominated by the Jagdeoite-Ramotarian clan is deathly afraid of facing its membership at local government elections. They know that many PPP members and groups will resist their handpicked candidates in many districts, triggering an open insurrection against the current cabal dominating Freedom House. They know that some PPP members will run against the failed and corrupt candidates Freedom House tries to impose on local communities.
The Jagdeoites dominating the PPP know that immense pressure will be brought to bear by party members against the corrupt and failed leadership and that they could lose their hold on the party through the democracy of local government elections. Some party members will not vote in protest. Others will support independent candidates.
Some will run as independents. The PPP also knows that local government elections will send a resounding rejection of its politics, making it even more vulnerable in the coming national election in 2016. So, this is the real reason for the PPP’s refusal to call local government elections. The Jagdeoite cabal running Freedom House with its Stalinist practices are afraid of facing their own party members. In an attempt to save their own skin, they are willing to refuse their own party members the freedom of participating in local government elections.
Some have publicly expressed the rumour that President Ramotar will try to delay any no-confidence vote election until the 2016 general election. If this is to occur, it would partly be because he is deathly afraid the Jagdeoites will remove him as a candidate in any new election before 2016 and partly because of the undemocratic nature of the PPP. The risk with trying to delay by court action a legitimate no-confidence vote that constitutionally triggers new elections is that it puts the PPP into the realm of illegitimacy and illegality.
At that point, the PPP conceivably will not have any constitutional power over the armed forces of this country, which could act in accordance with the constitution and force the PPP to either call the election right away or step down from power. Similarly, any civil protest against PPP refusal to step down would be legitimate. The constitution is clear on a no-confidence vote. It does not accommodate any delaying tactic. If a no-confidence motion is passed, the opposition must ensure it passes as part of the motion that elections must be called by the constitutionally prescribed time and that failure to do so is constitutional transgression.
M. Maxwell