AFC accuses PPP of using state data for political purposes

Aug 30, 2025 News

…says move gives ruling party unfair advantage

AFC accuses PPP of using state data for political purposes

Alliance for Change Leader, Nigel Hughes

Kaieteur News – The Alliance for Change (AFC) has accused the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) of exploiting state-gathered data to contact citizens for political support ahead of the upcoming elections.

At the party’s press conference on Friday, leader Nigel Hughes said the AFC is aware of PPP agents reaching out to electors to solicit votes.

This publication had reported that citizens have also disclosed being contacted by PPP representatives in recent weeks and questioned how the party accessed their phone numbers and other personal information.

“I know from four people in my office that the only way they could have gotten that information is when they went to get the cash grant money, and that information was given to them,” Hughes stated. He stressed that this matter warrants the intervention of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

On Thursday at the Freedom House, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed, “We acquired those numbers from various sources, that’s all I’m gonna say.” When pressed further and asked to address concerns of government data privacy, Jagdeo said those data are always protected. He added, “We have a new law that we passed and the data is protected.”

While acknowledging Jagdeo’s remarks, Hughes said the issue is one of fairness – whatever information the ruling party has to access a voter, every party must have the same ability.
Hughes said, “So if you use the information from the cash grant, whether you use the information from the Ministry of Housing, you cannot use your position as the party in government to take the government’s information, which is the private property of the people who provided it to the government, to use it.”

Hughes contended that such actions could influence the outcome of the vote and put the other parties at a disadvantage. He added, “That is not only unfair, it can affect the outcome of the vote. So, if the people’s Progressive Party can call 100,000 voters and say to them, vote for the PPP and the Alliance for Change, Forward Guyana, ALP don’t have the same ability to reach those same 100,000 persons, that is an interference in free and fair elections, because what you have done is that you have put those parties in a position of disadvantage.”

The AFC leader described the PPP’s actions as a violation of the principle of “equality of arms” and underscored that the six political parties contesting the 2025 elections should be competing under the same rules. He also announced that the AFC will raise the matter with international observers, while also calling on GECOM to intervene.

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AFC, Elections, PPP, state data, unfair

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