PPP claims victory in 66 LAAs —retainsfivetownships,tiedwithOppositionintwo

Fo l l o w i n g a p r e l i m i n a r y assessment of the results from the 2023 Local Government Elections, PPP General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday that his party secured a

“landslide” victoryalthough a number of the Local Authority Areas (LAAs) it won were not contestedbytheopposition.

Speaking during a press conference at Freedom House, he said the party secured 66 out of the 80 Local Authority Areas, retained the five townships that were under its control and tied with the opposition in the municipalities of BarticaandMahdia.Thishe saidleavestheAPartnership for National Unity (APNU) with outright wins in 14 of the LAAs and three towns namely: New Amsterdam, LindenandGeorgetown.

Jagdeo declared: “this is clearly a wipe out…it is the definition of a massive victory and that is how you decide landslide, not by showing that you win Georgetown or Linden that youhavewonhistorically.”

Jagdeo’s party had invested massively in Georgetown, Linden and New Amsterdam and had raised hopes among its supportersthatitcouldhave taken those municipalities. Several former APNU members- namely PatriciaChase-Green,TriciaRichard and Malcolm Ferreira had defectedtothePPP/Cwhich also energised Freedom House in the lead up to the polls. All three of them lost in the constituencies they contested to APNU candidates.

Retaining Strongholds

Drilling into the party’s performance, the General Secretarysaidthedatashow that the party is making significantinroadsacrossthe country He noted that the towns won by PPP outright are: Mabaruma, Anna Regina, Rose Hall, Corriverton, Lethem. With respect to Corriverton, the General Secretary said the party won all of the constituenciesexceptone.“I told you at a previous meetingthatAPNUwillwin one because one of the candidates for the constituencies passed away and you cannot replace a candidate just before the elections. But they really didn’t win because although the guy passed away, he got 333 votes and APNU’s candidate got 116,” the GeneralSecretarysaid.

Jagdeo said this means that the people of Corrivertonwantedtoprove a point; that they prefer to throw their votes behind the dead than a living APNU candidate.

“Thepeoplerejectedhim infavourofacandidatewho passed away because they don’twantAPNU’snegative policies to touch their community Thisisshameful thing,” he said. The PPP/C has traditionally won the townshipbysimilarmargins.

While the APNU maintained its hold on New Amsterdam, Jagdeo said the results are still telling. New

Amsterdamwasalsoanarea where the PPP/C spent a lot of resources Jagdeo highlightedthat in 2018, the APNU got 11 seats and PPP had three seats. In 2023, APNU will be reduced to eight seats and the PPP will havesix.

“So we are almost neck and neck,” the General Secretary added. In these elections as well, he noted that the PPP secured 1314 votes more than in 2018 which represents a 270 percent increase from that period.APNUonlygot1913 votes this year, according to Jagdeo’s count In Mabaruma, he said PPP secured 12 of the 14 seats whileinthepast,itonlyheld eight.“Sowehaveincreased our support base here,” he said.

Battle For Georgetown

In Georgetown which has predominantly been an APNU stronghold, Jagdeo saidthePPPwonfiveofthe 15 constituencies, up from threein2018.Henotedthata request for recount has been issued for Constituency #6 which includes parts of Cummings Lodge and Sophia.Hesaidthereisonly a four votes’ difference between PPPand theAPNU becauseof154spoiledvotes. The General Secretary said, “So in 2018, the PPP got 6813 votes in Georgetown. In these elections, we got 12,256 votes, nearly doubling our votes in Georgetownsothatismajor by any standard when you can increase votes so significantly. We increased by nearly 6000

To understand this, first of all, we need to see where the increase occurred. Was it in traditional areas like North

Georgetownordidwemake inroadsintootherareas?”

In Kingstown area, which is Constituency #1, Jagdeosaidthepartysawan increase of 500 votes compared to 2018. In the Kitty area which is Constituency#2, he said the partysawanincreaseof400 votes.

In Constituency #5 which is in the heart of Sophia, Jagdeo said the PPP got 528 more votes this elections than 2018. In the Charlestown/Albouystown area,hesaidvotesincreased by 473 votes, thanks to Malcolm Ferreira In Constituency #12 which is the Tucville, North Ruimveldt area where former Georgetown Mayor, Patricia Chase–Green contested, Jagdeo said the PPPsawanincreaseofvotes by528.

In East and West Ruimveldt, he said votes increased by 468 votes Jagdeo said, “So these are sizeable numbers That meansitisevenlyspreadand not just in North Georgetown. If you look at the results, we nearly doubled the number of peoplein2018thatvotedfor us now and for many years, theseweregarrisonareasfor APNUwheretinynumberof votes we got. This is the definition of a wipeout in their strong hold.” Again, Georgetown was PPP/C’s prized target rolling out several campaign meetings and unleashing the APNU crossovers.

LINDEN AND THE PPP/C

Meanwhile, in Linden, wherethepartylostallofthe eight constituencies and securedonlytwo

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