PPP claims victory in 66 LAAs

Jun 14, 2023 News

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…retains five townships, tied with Opposition in two

Kaieteur News – Following a preliminary assessment of the results from the 2023 Local Government Elections, PPP General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday that his party secured a “landslide” victory- although a number of the Local Authority Areas (LAAs) it won were not contested by the Opposition.

Speaking during a press conference at Freedom House, he said the party secured 66 out of the 80 Local Authority Areas, retained the five townships that were under its control and tied with the opposition in the municipalities of Bartica and Mahdia. This he said leaves the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) with outright wins in 14 of the LAAs and three towns namely: New Amsterdam, Linden and Georgetown. Jagdeo declared: “this is clearly a wipe out…it is the definition of a massive victory and that is how you decide landslide, not by showing that you win Georgetown or Linden that you have won historically.” Jagdeo’s party had invested massively in Georgetown, Linden and New Amsterdam and had raised hopes among its supporters that it could have taken those municipalities. Several former APNU members- namely Patricia-Chase-Green, Tricia Richard and Malcolm Ferreira had defected to the PPP/C which also energised Freedom House in the lead up to the polls. All three of them lost in the constituencies they contested to APNU candidates.

Retaining strongholds

Drilling into the party’s performance, the General Secretary said the data show that the party is making significant inroads across the country. He noted that the towns won by PPP outright are: Mabaruma, Anna Regina, Rose Hall, Corriverton, Lethem. With respect to Corriverton, the General Secretary said the party won all of the constituencies except one. “I told you at a previous meeting that APNU will win one because one of the candidates for the constituencies passed away and you cannot replace a candidate just before the elections. But they really didn’t win because although the guy passed away, he got 333 votes and APNU’s candidate got 116,” the General Secretary said. Jagdeo said this means that the people of Corriverton wanted to prove a point; that they prefer to throw their votes behind the dead than a living APNU candidate. “The people rejected him in favour of a candidate who passed away because they don’t want APNU’s negative policies to touch their community. This is shameful thing,” he said. The PPP/C has traditionally won the township by similar margins.

While the APNU maintained its hold on New Amsterdam, Jagdeo said the results are still telling. New Amsterdam was also an area where the PPP/C spent a lot of resources. Jagdeo highlighted that in 2018, the APNU got 11 seats and PPP had three seats. In 2023, APNU will be reduced to eight seats and the PPP will have six. “So we are almost neck and neck,” the General Secretary added. In these elections as well, he noted that the PPP secured 1314 votes more than in 2018 which represents a 270 percent increase from that period. APNU only got 1913 votes this year, according to Jagdeo’s count. In Mabaruma, he said PPP secured 12 of the 14 seats while in the past, it only held eight. “So we have increased our support base here,” he said.

Battle for Georgetown

In Georgetown which has predominantly been an APNU stronghold, Jagdeo said the PPP won five of the 15 constituencies, up from three in 2018. He noted that a request for recount has been issued for Constituency #6 which includes parts of Cummings Lodge and Sophia. He said there is only a four votes’ difference between PPP and the APNU because of 154 spoiled votes. The General Secretary said, “So in 2018, the PPP got 6813 votes in Georgetown. In these elections, we got 12,256 votes, nearly doubling our votes in Georgetown so that is major by any standard when you can increase votes so significantly. We increased by nearly 6000. To understand this, first of all, we need to see where the increase occurred. Was it in traditional areas like North Georgetown or did we make inroads into other areas?”

In Kingstown area, which is Constituency #1, Jagdeo said the party saw an increase of 500 votes compared to 2018. In the Kitty area which is Constituency #2, he said the party saw an increase of 400 votes. In Constituency #5 which is in the heart of Sophia, Jagdeo said the PPP got 528 more votes this elections than 2018. In the Charlestown/Albouystown area, he said votes increased by 473 votes, thanks to Malcolm Ferreira. In Constituency #12 which is the Tucville, North Ruimveldt area where former Georgetown Mayor, Patricia Chase–Green contested, Jagdeo said the PPP saw an increase of votes by 528.

In East and West Ruimveldt, he said votes increased by 468 votes. Jagdeo said, “So these are sizeable numbers. That means it is evenly spread and not just in North Georgetown. If you look at the results, we nearly doubled the number of people in 2018 that voted for us now and for many years, these were garrison areas for APNU where tiny number of votes we got. This is the definition of a wipeout in their strong hold.” Again, Georgetown was PPP/C’s prized target rolling out several campaign meetings and unleashing the APNU crossovers.

Linden and the PPP/C

Meanwhile, in Linden, where the party lost all of the eight constituencies and secured only two proportional representation seats, the General Secretary said the APNU’s votes increased but so too did the PPP which moved from 402 in 2018 to 2464 in 2023. It must be noted that the PPP/C’s total votes in Region 10 at the last general elections were just over 3000- most of which would have come from Linden while the APNU+AFC received over 19,000. People’s National Congress Reform executive member, Mervin Williams told this newspaper on Tuesday that given the heavy campaigning the PPP/C did, the 2464 votes could not be seen as any gains in Linden for that party, although voter turn out at LGEs are generally low. He reasoned that the votes that party received are what it would normally get at the general elections in the region over the years. However, Jagdeo, comparing the results with the 2018 local government elections said: “this is an over 500 percent increase in Linden. This is more than all the votes the new party A New and United Guyana (ANUG) got at the last General and Regional elections,” he said. Williams said in the 2018 LGE, the PPP/C did little campaigning in Linden as compared with its heavy investment at this year’s polls. In Kwakwani, the General Secretary said the party saw a significant increase too. “The difference is small. We won two Proportional Representation seats and increased votes by over 200 percent.” In Bartica, Jagdeo said the party won the majority of the votes, leading the APNU by 183. In 2018, APNU, he said got 1443 votes and the AFC was 470 while and PPP for 1144. “So when you combine them, the APNU+AFC got 1913. In these elections however, APNU fell to 1601 and we moved to 1784,” he said. Overall, the General Secretary said the party made phenomenal inroads in the city and other parts of the country.

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• Bharrat Jagdeo, LAAs, Local Government Elections, opposition, PPP General Secretary

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