Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
The strength of the PPP lies in more than ethnic loiyalties
Editor,
The results of the recent Local Government Elections have confirmed what most Guyanese already know, namely, that the PPP remains the largest and the most popular political party in the country.
A mere three years after its formation on January 1, 1950, the PPP swept the polls winning 18 out of 24 seats in the first elections held under universal adult suffrage. The split in the PPP in 1955, even though unfortunate, did not inflict significant political damage to the PPP, which won 9 of the 13 seats in the 1957 election.
Despite gerrymandering and political maneuverings, in the 1961 election by the political opposition, aided and abetted by foreign vested interests, the PPP won a parliamentary majority in 1961 and formed the government until it was prematurely engineered out of office in 1964 in what former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson described as a ‘fiddled constitutional arrangement’.
The rest is now history. The PPP was cheated out of office for twenty-four years, from 1968 to 1992 when democracy was finally returned to the country. The PPP won the October 5, 1992 elections with a comfortable majority. It was not until May 2015 that the PPP lost power to a six-party coalition under questionable circumstances. An elections petition mounted by the PPP is still before the courts.
The point I am seeking to make is that except for the May 15, 2015 elections, the PPP has always won either a majority or a plurality of the votes in every election except for the rigged elections during the 1968-1992 period.
There are some who attribute the PPP’s electoral and popular strength to ethnic loyalties but this is not entirely the case. The strength of the PPP has in a fundamental way, resided in the universalistic values and principles it embraced ever since its formation. Among these are a working class, pro-people orientation, national unity, and its embrace of political and ideological pluralism.
This is why the PPP continues to enjoy support from its traditional support base as well as other ethnic groups such as Amerindians and Afro-Guyanese. This makes the PPP the single largest multi-ethnic and representative party in the country.
Despite a relatively low voter turnout in the just concluded local government elections, the electorate has given a clear and unmistakable indication as to their voting preferences, which cannot be easily ignored by the international community and other key stakeholders.
The PPP/C has done well in extending its margin of victory especially in Georgetown and the country as a whole despite gerrymandering and boundary manipulation tactics by the APNU-AFC Government.
As for the AFC, it now faces an uncertain future. It has to take a hard look at the available options. It is clear that it has lost considerable political ground, which could weaken its bargaining strength in the ruling coalition.
Hydar Ally
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