Dear Editor,
Right after the general elections, I visited Guyana and surveyed people on how they voted in order to determine why the PPP lost ground and why the combined opposition did so well. Everywhere I went, PPP supporters vented the same frustration and anger with their party – they claimed the leadership did not listen to their complaints and as such some decided to defect to the AFC which they said gave them more of a hearing than the PPP.
The AFC gained on PPP supporters’ anger with the PPP. Many among those who voted for AFC in 2006 said they returned to the PNC because they saw an opportunity for APNU to capture power and had no faith in the PPP being their representative. Traditional PNC supporters solidified their support for APNU because PPP was unacceptable to them (in a racially polarized nation) and with the division among Indians they saw an opportunity to capture power.
PPP supporters claimed their party neglected them during the party’s tenure in office. “Is good fuh dem. Dem na do much fuh abe” was repeated again and again as a reaction among PPP loyalists from Parika to Corriverton to the PPP loss. Even the parents of a PPP candidate on the regional list on the West Coast said it was good for the PPP to lose ground so the leadership can learn a lesson and begin to do the right thing. “They needed to be taught a lesson”, was how an elderly man put it on the East Coast. He added: “PPP supported villages were neglected but communities supporting other parties get everything”.
Not many supporters are convinced the PPP will learn anything from the message in the result. Many among the elderly voters said the PPP leaders did not learn much during their reign in office and while in opposition for 28 years.
The elderly blame the PPP loss on its forsaking of its own supporters. Some PPP supporters felt that while the party needed to expand its base, it first had to secure its own base and it failed badly to do that during the last five years. The party members also complained about corruption among officials and arrogance among the leaders.
In several places in the PPP heartland, people said there was weak or no party organization. The party organizers could not motivate people to come to meetings or get them out on voting day. The PPP supporters said they were fed up with the local village organizers and in many places party groups had ceased to function or were unpopular with the rank and file. People also complained about a few of the regional Chair persons and their deputies. “We would run them when they came around to go to meeting because they hardly did anything for the areas”.
In Port Mourant, the most loyal bastion of the PPP and hometown of Dr. Jagan, activists could not rally the troops or get a full turn out on election day to cast ballots for the PPP. In fact, the AFC made gains in the area. A former PPP activist visiting from New York with a large group to celebrate Tain Mandir Youth’s 50th anniversary informed me that voters told him and his visiting group that the party neglected the area and voters had no interest to go to the polls on election day. He said people told him the party group was dysfunctional and supporters were so angry with the PPP that they told party canvassers “for PPP leaders to go and canvass in PNC strongholds since the government provided more to them than to PPP supporters”.
In earlier elections, almost everyone from Port Mourant came out to vote and the PPP would get over 98% of the ballots. But not in the last election.
Shortly after my post election poll inquiry, I met well known N.Y. community advocates Dr. Tara Singh, Dr. Dhanpaul Narine, Pandit Ramlall, Shrad Kublall and Vishnu Mahadeo, among others who also visited Guyana after the elections.
They asked about my findings of the post election inquiry and we compared notes. They said they got similar opinions to mine (as described above) on why the PPP suffered major losses at the November 28 elections. The question they asked and that I also am posing is what will the PPP do about their losses? Neither they nor the people I interviewed expect the PPP to do anything differently. If they are right, the future of the party is bleak.
The PPP should have known that their organizers, cadres, Regional Chairs and officers and some of the M.P.s were extremely unpopular and take corrective actions to retain support. But they let the problems fester and were convinced that PNC supporters would vote PPP. They miscalculated and now it would take a lot more work to win back its base.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
