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An impressive show of force by the PPP!

Aug 12, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

 

 

It was billed as a platform for youths. But coming in an election year, and organized on behalf of the People’s Progressive Party (involving a great many of the present and upcoming leaders of the PPP, as well as a number of prominent guests), Impress, a youth exposition, was expected to be a gauge of just how ready the party was for the polls.
The PPP has signaled that even though it is not yet in campaign mode, it can still plan the big events and get the numbers that it wants.
The response to yesterday’s event was tremendous, at least from the perspective of the ruling party. There were some bottlenecks. The organizers never perhaps expected to have been swamped by so many youths. They clearly underestimated the enthusiasm of the young people out there and the opportunity this event offered them to air their concerns.
The venue was clearly too small and the next time, those organizing the event on behalf of the PPP would have to host something like this in a much larger facility. Imagine what would have happened if it was held on a weekend!
What the turnout indicated, without doubt, is that even though its election campaign has not officially kick-started, the party is ready.
The PPP is ready for elections. Those who are fooling themselves into believing that the PPP wants to delay elections had better get their act together, because what took place yesterday was a mini-earthquake by the PPP. The place rocked!
The turnout was astonishing, considering that it took place on a working day and during working hours.
There were some, of course, who were concerned that the PPP should have gotten going earlier. A few months ago, the People’s National Congress Reform held a youth rally and marched through the streets of Georgetown. The youth were mostly bedecked in green jerseys, the campaign colours of the party. The turnout did not halt traffic for a long time. It was a small turnout of a few hundred on the streets and a few hundred more afterwards. But it showed that the main opposition was targeting the youth vote.
It may now have to reconsider its strategy, since the PPP seems to have that locked now.
Twenty years ago, the PPP would have struggled to muster a few hundred youth for an event in the city. Their traditional stronghold is not in the city. Yet, yesterday, look at the numbers they brought out!
Even more astonishing was the racial mix. There were persons of all descriptions there, demonstrating that the PPP is doing its work and reaching out to persons of all types.
While not everyone present was a supporter of the PPP, Guyana is a small society and word would have gotten around that this was a “PPP thing”. In fact the advertisement made it clear that this event was being organized on behalf of the PPP.
And since this has occurred even before the PPP has officially launched its campaign, the signals are strong that the PPP is not going to be a pushover in this year’s elections.
This impressive turnout must be seen against the backdrop of the party’s Mash Day participation over the past three years, where it left onlookers spellbound by the racial balance of its revellers, signaling that the PPP is winning over non-traditional supporters and has made major inroads into the opposition’s constituency.
A big factor that will allow the PPP to improve on yesterday’s numbers is the amount of money that the PPP can throw at events like these. The PPP has the money and its financiers are willing to throw their support behind the party in a way that dwarfs all other parties.
Also, this is just one of what is likely to be numerous countrywide exercises. Impress Youth Expo is now likely to be taken to other parts of the country and by the time it is over, the writing would have been scrawled on the electoral wall.
Yesterday’s turnout would have been demoralizing to the opposition, especially the AFC, which must have felt that it could have made major inroads into the youth vote. There is still time for that, but how does one counter this impressive show of force by the PPP?

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