Pres. Ali shrugs off vote-buying accusations

Aug 11, 2025 News

…says PPP practices inclusion with policies crafted for all Guyanese

Pres. Ali shrugs votes-buying accusations

President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali addressing the crowd in Bartica, Region 7

Kaieteur News – Amid growing concerns that his government was using state resources to campaign and trying to buy votes with the recent sudden promotion of hundreds of policemen and women, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Saturday said that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) will never bribe anyone to vote for the party.

He noted that the sound policies of his government over the past five years have transformed the lives of citizens in every village of the country. Ali was at the time speaking at a rally in Bartica where he said his party will not “offer you $50,000 to wear a shirt and $10,000 to put up a flag and $50,000 to vote. We don’t do that and whoever does that, does not deserve your vote.” The president questioned the future of those who would allow themselves to be bribed for their vote, announcing that his government practices inclusion with policies crafted for the benefit of the maximum number of Guyanese.

However, Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC) David Patterson on Friday last accused the government of Guyana of attempting ‘to buy the votes’ of members of the joint services with mass promotions. Patterson told reporters at his party’s weekly press conference that, “From all accounts, the PPP [Peoples Progressive Party] government and the VP [Vice President] shamelessly wants to buy approximately 3000 police votes by mass promotion.

Patterson said that, “this administrative arrangement will do massive harm to meritocracy in the force.” According to the AFC Chair, the interference by the government into the management and operations of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) at the hands of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has become “most unwholesome” recently. “He now assures some 800 of those who were not promoted that they will be; and, those still aggrieved, they too will receive promotions,” Patterson told reporter

Patterson explained that the Constitution makes provision for a Police Service Commission to promote senior officers and the Police Act also provides for ranks below that to be promoted by the Commissioner of Police and not the president or vice president. Patterson posited that among the arms of the government, the police are most prone to executive control, and “the PPP’s method through the instrumentality of its Vice President, is now to acquire complete control over the police.”

The former minister under A Partnership for National Unity and the AFC coalition said that, “Guyana’s policing presently is being set back into a state of political partisanship and PPP gendarmerie, with a purpose to subjugate rather than to serve the population. Professionalism is completely being abandoned for partisanship.” The AFC has committed to utilizing oil funds available now to substantially increase the base salaries of the rank and file of the GPF. However, the party has said that those who merit promotions to higher levels must receive the said promotions through, meritocratic arrangement, which was provided for in the Russel Coombes report on “How to improve the Human Resources of GPF”.

At the rally President Ali told supporters that some 2,800 police ranks are being promoted. According to a Department of Public Information release, the elevation will span several ranks, including promotions from Constable to Lance Corporal, Lance Corporal to Corporal, Corporal to Sergeant, and Sergeant to Inspector and that it underscored the President Ali-led government’s commitment to fairness, professionalism, and institutional reform. The promotions took effect on August 1, 2025.

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Bartica, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Elections, PPP, vote buying

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