THE PPP ACHIEVED ONE OF ITS OBJECTIVES

Mar 22, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The PPP, as expected, dominated the elections for the sixty-two Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs). Its margin of victory in the NDCs demonstrated that in a number of areas the ruling APNU+AFC coalition was complacent.
APNU+ AFC, on the other hand, dominated the Municipal Elections to the extent where the PPP was humiliated in Georgetown. The PPP’s share of the votes in the city was less than 50% of what it obtained in 1994. The PPP also fared badly in Lethem and did not take control of Mabaruma.
The Stabroek News was quick to highlight the losses of the PPP in the Municipalities but has only reported on what the PPP has said in relation to the Neighborhood Democratic Councils.
The PPP had a deliberate strategy of not campaigning in the Municipalities. It contested in all of the Municipalities but it was not an active campaigner in these areas. This was part of its strategy for which its leader was forthright.
He made it clear that the strategy for these elections were to consolidate the party’s main support base. He said that the party was aware that it had lost ground in the towns because it had not matched its development of the infrastructure with political work.
He pointed to the loss of support of almost nine percentage points in Linden between 2006 and 2011.
The PPP got hammered in Linden in the Local Government Elections failing for the first time to gain a seat. It barely managed two seats in Georgetown and its representation on the council in Bartica is insignificant.
The PPP did not concentrate on winning or trying to do better in the towns but its poor showing in the towns may have shocked the party and forced it to question whether the strategy it used had backfired.
The strategy of the PPP in the Municipalities was not irrational. It may have gambled that if it had a low profile campaign in the towns, then it would not be perceived as a threat to APNU+AFC. It may have been hoping that the independents, in these circumstances, would have split the APNU+AFC vote and that the PPP’s invisibility would encourage the loss of votes for the ruling coalition.
The PPP could then do better if its supporters in the towns voted along party lines.
Consistent with this strategy of not campaigning much in the towns, the PPP therefore allowed a number of political unknowns to be its representatives in a number of constituencies.
It also went back with persons who were part of its 1994 slate. This proved to be disastrous considering the fact that the majority of persons were voting or the first time.
The lesson that the PPP learnt at the end of the elections was that it has to campaign if it intends to do well. Another lesson is it that it has to start courting popular and credible candidates. Its strategy backfired. Its own supporters did not vote or did not vote for the party. The result is that the party was humiliated in the Municipal Elections.
The PPP, of course, has always had a problem with finding competent persons in sufficient numbers to be part of the Local Government system. When you are in government, you have to find persons for Parliament, find persons to work in government, then to find persons for the Regional Administrations.
It is not easy, after all of this, to find sufficiently capable persons to fill over eight hundred positions in the NDCs and Town Councils.
The PPP is not in government and may have found it even harder to find sufficient capable candidates in a number of areas.
The PPP may have factored all of this into its overall campaign strategy and decided that it is best at this stage that it uses the Local Government Elections to consolidate its base.
It has done so effectively but it may still live to regret that it did not mobilize and campaign harder in the towns where it was humiliated by APNU+AFC.

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THE PPP ACHIEVED ONE OF ITS OBJECTIVES

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