Opposition hails victory in strongholds as major rebuke to PPP/C

ByShervinBelgrave

Opposition leader, Aubrey Norton on Tuesday admitted that his party, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has lost “a few battles” in Monday’s Local Government Elections,butsaidbeingable to hold onto its strongholds is a major rebuke to the rulingPPP/C.

Despite the minor losses in some areas, Norton is happy that APNU was able to retain almost of all of its strongholds in Linden, New A m s t e r d a m a n d Georgetown, which the PPP/C had targeted with massive campaigning and spending.

“A few battles might havebeenlostbutIalsohave no doubt that we won the war”, Norton told reporters duringpressconferenceheld atCongressPlace.

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Bharrat Jagdeo, while campaigning for his party had statedAPNU is worried over losing its strongholds becausethePPP/Cismaking major inroads. Jagdeo at his party’s press conference on Tuesday maintained that his party did make an impact in APNU’sstrongholdsdespite losinginthoseareas.

Bad Governance

Nortonsaidthatforhim, victory in the strongholds shows that his supporters have rejected the PPP/C for its “bad governance and corruptpractices”.

ThepeopleofGuyanado not want a one-party state…theyhaverejectedthe PPP The people of the Guyana reject the PPP’s attempt at domination and control… So we see it as a victory not only for APNU but for the entire country”, Nortonsaid.

While the PPP/C boasts of winning a “landslide” victory at the polls securing 66outof80localauthorities areas, Norton said this must be put in its correct perspective as his party did not contest in a number of theseareas.

“We said from the inception that we were not contesting all the areas and for him to come with that (landslide) is disingenuous” Nortonrelated.

When asked if he is concernedthatthePPP/Cdid make some inroads in areas that have been traditionally held by APNU, the Opposition Leader said that heisnotworried,adding:“I don’t think that is the issue, whatJagdeoisseekingtodo is shift the goal post Remember he set the goal posts, we are going to beat the APNU in New Amsterdam;wearegoingto beat them in Georgetown… when you get blows, you now start talking about 66 (the number of local government authorities won bythePPP/C).

One of the towns that PPP/C might have made some inroads might be Bartica, Region Seven APNU has a large support baseinBarticaandalthough it was a close fight, the PPP/C, based on the results uploaded to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) website, gained 183 more votes than the opposition. TheAPNU won fiveofthenineconstituency seats, with PPP securing four For the proportional representation, the PPP secured five seats, while the opposition received four This has resulted with both parties tied at nine seats each.

Nevertheless, Norton noted that this year’s Local Government Elections (LGE) was just a “dry run” and just the beginning of planstobeatthePPP/Catthe 2025 Regional and General Elections.

“We see this as the beginning of the work towards the General and Regional Elections and we willcontinuetomobiliseand organise our supporters to ensurethatwhenwecometo thenextgeneralandregional elections, we are going to beat the People’s Progressive Party hands down,”Nortonsaid.

Travis Ellis, a Kaieteur News pressman secured victory at Monday’s Local Government Elections (LGE) in Constituency 10 of the Georgetown Municipality–Albouystown/Charlestown.

Ellis contested as a candidate for A PartnershipforNationalUnity(APNU)and saidthatitwasthefirsttime,heparticipated in the race to become councillor for his community

Askedwhatpromptedhimtocontestthe elections, Ellis said “… Because of the youngpeopleinmycommunity…theylack fairleadershipandIwanttobetheirvoice”.

Tosecuretheirsupport,Ellissaidthathe campaigned by visiting “door-to-door” and letting the residents of his community understand that “party flags do not win elections”.

Nowthathehaswon,Ellisplanstowork overtimetodevelophiscommunitynotonly

K ews’ pressman, Travis Ellis

N