Vindhya to PPP: Stop the protests and go to Parliament

"I strongly urge, as I did previously at our meeting, that we go to Parliament and represent our support base as a formidable opposition. We need to demonstrate a positive and united approach as a party and represent Guyanese at the highest level..."

Vindhya to PPP: Stop the protests and go to Parliament

National Candidate for the People’s Progressive Party and former Member of Parliament, Dr. Vindhya Persaud believes it is time that the PPP end its protests and head to Parliament to represent the over 202,000 people who voted for the party at the May 11 elections.

In an email to her PPP colleagues, Dr. Persaud said she could not agree with any decision by the party to boycott parliament. She said the party only stands to lose more support.

She said she is also against the picketing exercise planned for the opening of parliament by the PPP since she is convinced that the protests so far have not been fruitful.

“Our Party has engaged in similar activity over the last few weeks and has gained minimal support from the public and its support base throughout the country. I would suggest this was due to the party’s failure to present to the public concrete evidence or convincing information in support of its claim that there was significant rigging  that could have changed the results”, Persaud wrote.

The PPP has been hosting almost weekly protests outside the elections commission since the May 11 polls calling for a recount and for the Chairman of the Elections Commission to step down from office.

The party has not presented its list of parliamentarians for the 11th Parliament and when the Parliament opens today, the opposition benches will be empty. Persaud who is the daughter of late party stalwart, Reepu Daman Persaud has been urging the party’s leadership to change its posture and head into the National Assembly.

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“I strongly urge, as I did previously at our meeting, that we go to Parliament and represent our support base as a formidable opposition. We need to demonstrate a positive and united approach as a party and represent Guyanese at the highest level holding the de facto Government accountable for their actions. Their many actions taken since their ascendancy require our scrutiny, objection and rejection. In the height of rigged elections, Dr. Jagan went to Parliament as Opposition- he understood that the party’s voice needed to be heard and recorded at that level.”

She said the PPP needs to have an end game with multiple paths to same adding that “while we may go ahead with our petition and pressure on GECOM, we must simultaneously take our seats in parliament continuously reminding APNU of their illegitimate occupation of their offices. We must prove that we are capable of being the opposition that we demanded of APNU while consistently articulating their every failure.”

Dr. Persaud also made known her views on the party’s loss at the elections. She pointed to several factors and events that did not boost the party’s image or support its campaign.

“We are still reeling from the elections and pre-elections debacles; the Anil tape, the Bheri issue, the middle-finger (Rohee’s Elections Day pose) and corruption at various levels. The recent instances of corruption, mismanagement and poor judgement from candidates and party members have further eroded our support.”

The PPP member also highlighted  the issues of the campaign billboards being charged to GWI/ Ministry of Housing and using Ministry of Tourism monies for flights to NY for campaign purposes. She said those were clear misuse and abuse of taxpayers monies and “these validate the allegations of corruption that have dogged us.”

Dr. Persaud is the second national candidate for the PPP to speak out about the way forward after the elections. Newcomer and businessman Clinton Urling called out the PPP for its leadership issues and took issue with former President Bharrat Jagdeo being in charge of most of the party’s decision.

Urling’s concerns were dismissed by the PPP’s General Secretary, Clement Rohee who said Urling was “just a candidate”.

The PPP is Guyana’s oldest political party. After spending 28 years in Opposition, the party gained political power in 1992 and went into government. It remained in government for past 22 years.

The PPP lost the May 11 elections to a coalition of six political parties, by just under 5000 votes.

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