General Secretary of the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has hammered many of the plans and promises unveiled by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) at its campaign launch, which took place on Sunday.

At a Thursday press conference at his party’s Freedom House headquarters, Mr. Jagdeo said the APNU’s promises are extravagant and unsustainable.

“They are very extravagant on promises. They were extravagant on the promises in 2015. They were loud about it across the country and then did not do anything to implement it. So I think they believe that you can just go to a platform and everyone says something and it sounds good and people will buy into it. And then, oh, should we succeed in duping them? We don’t have to implement it. They’ll forget about it. Like they forgot about 2015 promises that were made to everyone”, Jagdeo told reporters.

Focusing on the oil and gas sector, which is responsible for a huge chunk of Guyana’s earnings currently, the Vice President said the APNU has not presented any clear plan for the sector, but is promising to spend more earnings from the sector. He said there appears to be no plan by the APNU that mirrors the reality that could face the sector.

“So what if oil prices fall, say next year or this year? What are they going to do? If you base the implementation of all your promises only on oil money. So what happens when it goes?”, Jagdeo questioned.

He said earnings from the oil and gas sector is not certain and therefore a campaign cannot be built around uncertainty.

The PPP General Secretary rubbished a statement from one of the partners in the APNU Coalition, Dr. David Hinds, of providing citizens with a $1 million cash grant. Jagdeo said that would represent more than half of the national budget and therefore any such plan or promise would be misleading.

With regards to the APNU’s Presidential Candidate’s plan to increase public servants salaries by 35% on the first day of an APNU administration, Vice President Jagdeo said that would be extravagant and unsustainable.m

“So if you give 35%, in the first year, 2026, it becomes $312 billion. In the second year, $448 billion because you’re compounding. Third year, $605 billion. Fourth year, $817 billion. And by 2030, the end of your term, $1.1 trillion only on wages. Now we have half of that we are collecting as oil money. So that means double. You’re going to pay in wages alone in the public sector twice as much money than we have in the budget from oil and gas sector and almost the entire 2025 budget. All of the money we have in the budget will go to wages. Nothing for anything else in the country. Nothing for education. Nothing for health care. Nothing for building roads, bridges, or anything else. It’s not just unsustainable. You have to be like in a madhouse, be taken from the madhouse to make a promise like this”, he said.

The PPP General Secretary said the political parties need to be realistic and honest with their plans. He said his party, the PPP, intends to campaign on its record in office over the past five years and showcase the work it has done in the various sectors, from housing to infrastructure to job creation.

The PPP will launch its campaign for the elections this Sunday in Kitty.

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