For 50 years in post-independent Guyana, one party ruled the Nation. It occurred with the People’s National Congress (PNC) and then with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). But when the six-party, APNU+AFC coalition contested the 2015 General and Regional elections and emerged victorious to form the government, Guyana finally broke the back of the horrid one-party rule.
It is upon this premise that Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo noted in his most recent column that Guyana should not return to one-party government, specifically the PPP.
“It is a recipe for dictatorship, authoritarianism and, in the case of the post-Jagan PPP, to arbitrary, Stalinist rule…The excesses under the post-Jagan PPP government were due mainly to one-man, one-party, corrupt and dictatorial rule,” the government official added.
Further to this, Nagamootoo noted that between 2000 and 2011, the “Stalinists” brazenly subverted internal party processes and resorted to election rigging. Though ranking amongst the party’s top five leaders, Nagamootoo said he was repeatedly purged from the leadership.
The Prime Minister said that once again, the spectre of PPP’s one-party, puppet rule hovers darkly over Guyana. He said that throughout his political life, he has promoted alliance politics, and therefore, cannot in good conscience allow this to pass. He, therefore, urged all Guyanese not to be swayed by emotionalism or ethnic appeals. “They should vote against the return of one-man, one-party rule,” the Prime Minister concluded.
