PPP/C cannot escape the inevitable fall from power – Granger

After traveling the length and breadth of the country on a vigorous election campaign, Presidential Candidate

APNU+AFC Presidential Candidate, David Granger

of A Partnership for National Unity plus Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), David Granger, is convinced that there is an enormous movement in favour of the coalition. At a press conference held at the coalition’s headquarters in Queenstown yesterday, Granger told members of the media that he is absolutely confident that his party will win a majority in the upcoming election. The Presidential hopeful said that come May 11, the electorate will have an opportunity to choose between the APNU+AFC coalition’s commitment to establish a ‘government of national unity’ or the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic’s (PPP/C) determination to continue its ‘winner-takes-all’ approach. Granger said, too, that the PPP/C is sliding towards a fall from power in the 2015 general and regional elections. He stated that the government has been experiencing a decline in its support base for several years. He then pointed to the PPP/C’s electoral performance to justify his conclusion. “The PPP claimed 220,667 votes in the controversial 1997 general and regional elections. Its tally fell to 210,013 in 2001. It then fell to 182,156 in 2006. It finally crashed to 166,340 in 2011 when it lost its majority in the National Assembly to APNU and the AFC. The decline started in August 1999 when Bharrat Jagdeo replaced Janet Jagan. “Jagdeo, despite his boastful behaviour and swaggering style, was the author of the PPP’s problems, losing over 54,000 votes from Janet Jagan’s assumed tally in 1997. His tenure ended in 2011 after the failure of ineffective manoeuvres to seek a new term of office,” The Opposition leader expressed. Granger said, too, that the PPP/C during the “Jagdeo era” persistently failed to address the people’s basic needs for public services and embarked instead on a series of expensive but misconceived mega-projects such as the Fibre Optic Cable Project, the Specialty Surgical Hospital and the Amaila Falls Hydro-power Project road. The politician recalled that the government tried to subordinate the National Assembly to the Executive branch of government on several occasions. He said that it also impaired regulatory and law-enforcement agencies  such as the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Guyana Energy Agency by depriving them of adequate assets, equipment and finance to such an extent as to diminish their capability to function effectively. He contended that the PPP even cultivated the state-owned communications media – the Government Information Agency (GINA), Guyana National Newspapers Limited (publishers of the Guyana Chronicle) and the National Communications Network (NCN) – as Party organs to systematically exclude dissenting opinions. But in focusing on stifling the opposition and the nation as a whole, Granger said that the party failed to address the country’s most pressing problem, the public security crisis. He said that government has never accepted its responsibility for the high rate of armed robberies, the murderous maritime piracy, the rampant gun-running and contraband smuggling and other violent crimes that rage along the coastland. “The entire nation is alarmed at the rising homicide rate. There have been more than 2,100 murders over the past 15 years during the two deadly Jagdeo and Ramotar presidencies. Guyana’s murder rate is three times higher than that of the United States. The PPP failed to advance local democracy by destroying neighbourhood democratic councils and delaying local government elections. It failed to maintain educational standards which are now characterized by poor performance from the level of primary schools to the university,” Granger added. Because of its poor governance and negligence, the APNU+AFC Presidential Candidate said that the PPP/C is now facing a ‘tsunami’ of troubles which grows more threatening by the day. As such, Granger opined that government “cannot escape the inevitable fall from power” when general and regional elections are held on May 11. His Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine asserted that observer groups asked the coalition if it is prepared to deal with the possibility of the results being in favour of the PPP/C. The politician said that it was related to the missions that once there is no violation of the electoral process, laws and practices, then the APNU+AFC would find no difficulty in accepting results of the elections. He said that this sentiment was also communicated to its supporters. “We have, at every rally and public meeting, stressed to people that we want a peaceful election and post-election period, but there is such a surge of hope…and if they individually detect that there are deliberate attempts to frustrate the process, then I fear they will be difficult to restrain… but we will do our best to try to calm the people,” the APNU Executive expressed.