Jagdeo is sinking PPP.

APNU’s Shadow Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine
, strongly believes that the “resurrection” of former President Bharrat Jagdeo during the election campaign of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) “will turn out to be its gravest mistake.”

Jagdeo's fake marriage

Since Jagdeo surfaced to support the government in the upcoming polls, he has held two press conferences and delivered remarks at the PPP’s rally in Kitty. On each occasion, he wasted no time in bashing members of the political opposition such as APNU’s Leader, David Granger; APNU Shadow Minister of Finance, Carl Greenidge, the APNU+AFC’s Prime Ministerial Candidate, Moses Nagamootoo and even Raphael Trotman.

Jagdeo’s arguments, in most cases, paint a picture that portrays some members of the opposition as “power hungry, hypocritical” and having a poor record under the People’s National Congress (PNC).

Carl Greenidge

He has been calling on members of the opposition to face their record. One such person Jagdeo has challenged to do so is APNU Executive member, Carl Greenidge, whose actions he recalled from 25 years ago to be at the core of unaccountability.

Dr. Roopnaraine has said that quite frankly, he believes that Jagdeo’s presence in the PPP/C’s election campaign will only prove to be the undoing of the current administration and it will be made to pay for it come May 11, next.

“We are not the least bit intimidated by Jagdeo who seems obsessed with going back to a past that he fabricates. In fact, we in the opposition are really very happy that he is very visible; he will flounce around talking nonsense. But little does Jagdeo know that the people are tired of his old and wicked tricks.

Dr. Roopnarine's latest work

We think that he will be an easy beat and I don’t think we could pay for better comedy. It is sad as well as sickening that he believes the electorate can be persuaded by his empty words because his poor track record has left behind some deep wounds on this nation. So trust me when I say that his presence will only prove to be to our advantage.
Every time Jagdeo opens his mouth he sinks the PPP/C further into the trenches. With every appearance he proves to the electorate that he is a malicious and toxic person,” Dr. Roopnaraine asserted.

His colleague, Carl Greenidge, called on the former President earlier this week to face his “real nasty record”.
Greenidge had said that the former President also needs to stop trying to take credit for things that never occurred under his watch like major declines in the overall debt rate and improved measures of transparency and accountability.

Jagdeo Home

“That is a fabricated record Jagdeo is trying to paint for himself. “

He said, too, that Jagdeo needs to be a “big boy” and talk about his “history of corruption, failed projects, gifting extravagant parts of Guyana to your friends and cronies, the giveaway of the radio licences, the Skeldon “white elephant” factory, the failed Guyana/Brazil cable project and the tax-funded Marriott Hotel.”

The politician also said that Jagdeo must speak about the Sanata Complex giveaway, the sale of the GPC, the Amaila Falls road project, the Specialty Hospital, the Surendra pumps, the Enmore Packaging Plant and the CJIA Expansion project.”

APNU+AFC had also said that Jagdeo’s actions are simply characteristic of a dying regime. Along this same line, Dr. Roopnaraine said that the opposition also believes that after all the years the current administration spent in office; it has failed miserably to create the kind of environment or life for Guyanese that is really their due.

“And my own feeling is that a lot of governments when they are in power for too long, you start to detect certain behaviours like that of the PPP and you find that it is not dissimilar from the ones coming to the end of its days .

The PPP is exhausted and it does not have fresh ideas for the modern times and the new questions and it is stuck in the past hence Jagdeo’s resurrection.

This government is fighting ghosts and it is not interested in facing anything of the present,” the Shadow Minister explained.

Additionally, there have also been a number of concerns from the major political parties on issues relating to transparency and the holding of free and fair elections by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
There have also been a number of international reports on the said matter where it had also offered recommendations to the elections body.

Dr. Roopnaraine said that he could not say, definitively, whether either side raised the observations of those reports during discussions with GECOM. He did note, however, that to the best of his knowledge, GECOM “does not really attend to the recommendations of those reports and my view is that it should pay more attention to the suggestions offered by observer groups and implement where necessary so as to strengthen the election process.”