Love for country comes first …PPP WILL NOT BULLY OUR CANDIDATES INTO CHANGING SIDES

Sep 30, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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The Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is showing signs of discomfort as reported by the residents in a few Local Government electoral districts. This is the same party that has been accusing the government of planning to rig both the 2018 Municipal Elections and the big one that is due in 2020!
But we have been observing along the campaign trail in the run-up to the November polls that the very same opposition who has been crying and woofing about election rigging is being openly accused of political skullduggery.
For instance, several residents of Ithaca, West Bank Berbice, have accused PPP activists of engaging in unconstitutional activities like placing their given names on the Candidates’ Voter Scrolls in their village. There are others who told the AFC that they would not vote again (or never for some) for any party with such a bad world reputation as one of the most corrupt Governments in the western hemisphere.
The AFC now asks our Readers and supporters to take note of the fact that despite all the shouting and mudslinging, the PPP has never been able to prove that any other party has had the temerity to pull off the things that they got away with for 23 years. They have accused the Coalition of doing the same things they did, but those claims fell flat. The people are confident that the Coalition has absolutely no intention of cheating. We are not setting the stage to falsify documents, ballot papers, voters’ lists, ballot counts … none of what the PPP did so blatantly in the past two general elections.
Late last week, the leadership of the AFC came out quite strongly to condemn the opposition party for practicing their age old, dirty tricks and tactics, their bullyism and threats to residents living in parts of East Berbice.
The party executive visited and we were shown the evidence to support the credible reports of intimidation by PPP activists of many AFC Local Government candidates and supporters. These PPP people visited GECOM’s offices and actually made requests for the AFC’s candidates’ names to be removed as signatories. It was shocking to see the lengths these people are going to in order to disqualify the popular AFC candidates, and we had to expose them publicly.
Every Guyanese knows that the PPP is frustrated at being unable to control the regions they see as belonging to them. They are frustrated that they are no longer in control of the reins of power, and so they are not able to pillage and plunder the nation’s treasury as they used to so. Today, they see opportunity in abundance ahead of them with the revenues that Guyana stands to earn from oil (and gas) after 2020, and they will go to any length to get their hands on it.
Against this background, and with a bright future for Guyana at stake, the AFC is preparing itself for a PPP onslaught like Guyana has never seen before. We anticipate that they will rachet up the dirty tricks campaigns and launch horrifying personal attacks everywhere including Region 4.
They have even attempted to discredit the Executive President and his entire Cabinet. That has not worked, but we will not rest. We expect much more from them because the PPP and its current leaders cannot afford to lose another election. Their personal futures are at stake. Their past predilections are ample indicators.
As ministers, department and agency heads and acolytes, they had become very used to living like kings and queens. Now, without the backing of Government funds, kickbacks, drawbacks, ill-gotten gains, the parallel narcotics-fuelled economy, the use and ownership of national assets like Pradoville 2 and private jets, they have no intention of continuing to live at the level of ordinary Guyanese, highly educated or not. The lure of the high life is very strong for them.
Recently, PPP activists on the so-called Freedom Radio have been encouraging their callers to make scandalous allegations, some resembling the one about ethnic cleansing that they jumped on after losing the 2015 elections. As is traditional in that party, the PPP continues to appeal to East Indian racist supremacy (yes, we have our own in Guyana).
But we digress from the PPP’s campaign of bullyism and intimidation. In a recent statement, we said that the PPP continues to try to sabotage Guyana’s fragile democracy, and they proved it by refusing to hold Local Government Elections since 1994. From 2014 to present, PPP activists have engaged in verbal abuse, blatant threats and senseless victimization of persons who have been supporting the AFC.
So, we have lodged our complaints and observations with GECOM and asked the body to publish the list of candidates for every political party for everybody to see. We are aware that the publication of the lists allows the PPP to identify the AFC’s candidates and they will try to intimidate them and their families.
Party Chairman and Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan identified Whim and nearby areas in the Corentyne as Ground Zero for PPP coercion. He said that the PPP is clearly afraid of the AFC’s challenge, and that they are trying to use our party to discredit GECOM, the LGE and national elections.
The AFC will be fielding more than 400 candidates for posts all across the country. Many of the people who are AFC candidates are independent thinkers who are more interested in making this country better than it has ever been. They could be exposed to PPP bullyism and intimidation but love for country comes first!

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