Dear Editor,
Reference is made to Rudesh Jodha’s missive exposing electoral fraud at the PPP Congress (May 15). Efforts must be made to deter similar acts of fraud occurring in the PNC party elections slated for the end of June.
It is a known fact that electoral frauds were perpetrated on supporters of both major parties at their Congresses. Both PPP denied their delegates true democratic participation at their Congress. The voting by delegates that took place at the PPP Congress earlier this month was a sham, a farce, a fraud. The PNC must not take a page out of the book of the PPP and hold a crooked election. The party must go for an honest, free and fair election.
As Jodha pointed out, the PPP used native Amerindians to bloat the delegates list in order to rig the voting at the Congress. As Jodha pointed out, Amerindians constituted more than a third of the delegates at the PPP Congress although they contributed less than 5% of the PPP’s total support of 51% in the 2020 elections. Clearly, the PPP has reached out to and has been wooing floating Amerindians to boost support so as to retain government in the 2025 elections. Africans were also overrepresented at the PPP Congress and Indians under-represented for a desired end – the delegates were instructed who to vote for.
My colleagues have been talking about how several prominent PPP politicians like Anil Nandlall, Frank Anthony, and Vindya Persaud, among others, were cheated at the Congress in terms of votes obtained for selection in the Central Committee. If one were to exclude the vote of the more than 900 Amerindian delegates from those obtained by the preferred 26 selectees, Nandlall, Vindya, Frank and others would be among the top five or ten.
A party’s internal vote should not be manipulated as happened at the PPP Congress. It is hoped that the PNC Congress will have a free, fair, and honest election. There must not be manipulation of votes in choosing the leader and the executive.
Yours truly,
Nigel Pilgrim
