PPP Election Results: Jagdeo losing power, Ali beats him by 51 votes; Ramotar comes in almost bottom of list

The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) after more than six years of not holding a Congress held its 32nd Congress this weekend. In what many suspected and was publicly reported by supporters the election of new members to the Central Executive was stage managed. President Irfaan Ali got the most votes 2308 and Party General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo the second highest, coming in at 2257, a difference of 51 votes.

The views of political pundits are mixed. One person told this publication this could signal the end of Jagdeo from the political limelight “which will be good for Guyana.” Another person dismissed the number saying persons were instructed how to vote and “there was no free expression of the people’s will.”

Asked to elaborate further, the University of Guyana lecturer, who prefers not to be named for fear of “reprisal,” rhetorically asked “how do they explain popular members of the party like former President Donald Ramotar and former government Minister Clement Rohee almost coming in last?”

Ramotar placed 27 with 1075 votes. Rohee received 735 votes, coming in at 34.

The system was rigged, the academic emphatically stated, contending that “the Party of Dr. Cheddi Jagan has become a shelf of itself, hijacked by bourgeois and the nouveau riche.”

Quite incensed, the lecturer said also elected are persons that could be classified as “deplorable; society knows at least one of them so there is no need to name names.”

Former Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall who was forced to resign amidst allegation of raping and sodomising a teenager is among the elected. He secured the sixth highest vote, i.e. 1912. The University lecturer says this is ” sickening and may well be a reflection of the political degeneracy” the society is experiencing.