During the opening ceremony of the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) 32nd Congress on Saturday, General Secretary (GS) Bharrat Jagdeo delivered a resolute message, reiterating the party’s position against power sharing with the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) led opposition. In his address, Jagdeo underscored the importance of trust in any collaboration, particularly in light of the PNCR’s track record of unfulfilled promises.
“People ask us what about power sharing. What about power sharing, will the PPP want to share power with the political parties,” he said.
Jagdeo highlighted that calls for power sharing only arise when the PNCR is not in office. He went on to explain that while the PPP is open to working with all political parties, there is certain critical factors that must be present for collaboration to be viable.
“Trustworthiness is a big part of that. APNU supporters don’t even trust APNU (A Partnership For National Unity), because they failed to implement their manifesto promises. They can’t even get trust from their own supporters because they failed them, they made all these promises,” Jagdeo said.
Further, Jagdeo highlighted the APNU’s failure to uphold the terms of the Cummingsburg Accord, pointing to broken commitments. The Cummingsburg Accord (coalition agreement) was originally signed by the APNU and the Alliance For Change (AFC) in 2015 and later revised in 2019.
“The Cummingsburg Accord promise to the AFC (the) chairing of cabinet, and the naming ministers. The ink had not dried yet on the Cummingsburg Accord and their partner in crime, the AFC was kicked out basically, was reduced to a rubber stamp, which they gladly accepted,” Jagdeo stated.
Moreover, he questioned how trust could be placed in a party of such nature, one that refuses to acknowledge the attempt to rig the 2020 elections. He said too, “And then how can you trust the party that will want to use rigging of elections as a tool to come to power. We are democrats we believe in democracy.
“We believe in freedom for people to choose their own government freely, openly, and that you must work for their support, which is what this party does. We work for people support. We don’t bully them. We don’t threaten. We don’t harass them. We don’t boycott them. “
