PPP/C fighting against racism, criminality – Jagdeo at Bath rally

As the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) seeks a second term in office at the September 1 General and Regional Elections, PPP/C General Secretary (GS) Dr Bharrat Jagdeo says that instead of the party having to contest against policies, it is faced with racism and criminality from its political opponents. “We don’t have political opponents with a track record of achievement or plans for the future. What is the PPP fighting against? …we are fighting two things now: racism and criminality,” Jagdeo told supporters at a massive PPP/C Elections Rally on Sunday evening at Bath, West Coast Berbice (WCB).
According to Jagdeo, there are four political parties that will be on the ballot paper that are remnants of the previous A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition, and all preach the same things: racism and division.

“If you listen to their campaign, they don’t talk about how they will create jobs for you or…your children, or get a better health care and education to our people; how they would support you to help develop small businesses; how they would take care of the communities and keep you safer… All they talk about is racism and division,” he stated. Jagdeo, who serves as the Vice President (VP) in the current PPP/C Administration, recalled when he went to Region Five to roll out the part-time jobs initiative, persons in villages that are mainly Afro-Guyanese were surprised that the Government was going there to provide jobs for citizens.
“And why did they not believe that?… All their lives they were told that the PPP is racist, the PPP hates Afro-Guyanese, and when they actually saw those young people signing up for the part-time jobs, many of them came to me and said, can I also benefit from this and I said, yes.”
“The people are rejecting the racism…we must all reject the racism… That is what the PPP is fighting against… they [the Opposition] don’t have any plans for your children or for you. We’re not fighting against that… If they don’t have any track record, how can we trust them? So, the only thing we’re fighting against is racism,” the GS stated.

Criminality
On the other hand, Jagdeo said the other party that the PPP/C is contesting against is the We Invest In Nationhood (WIN), which is trying to protect its leader – United States (US)-sanctioned Azruddin Mohamed – from criminality.
In 2024, the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Nazar Mohamed and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, as well as several of their companies. The sanctions are related to the evasion of taxes on gold exports, noting that between 2019 and 2023, Mohamed’s Enterprise omitted more than 10 thousand kilograms (kg) of gold from import and export declarations and avoided paying more than US$50 million in duty taxes to the Government of Guyana. Azruddin Mohamed has since launched a political party and he is running as the presidential candidate. His party, WIN, has been approved by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to contest the upcoming September 1 elections.
However, as a result of the OFAC sanctions, several local commercial banks have closed the accounts of many of the candidates on the WIN lists.
“They put many people at risk because of his criminality. All the people who went on his list of candidates, he fooled many of them. They are coming to us now because they got into trouble, asking the PPP to help them…no bank will deal with a criminal entity…and he goes around telling lies all the time. They say they have momentum, but they pay a few people to go into a community, take some pictures and then post it and say they have momentum. People in this country are very smart. They are not going to put their children’s future at risk,” he declared.
The PPP/C GS went on to caution citizens to be on the lookout for continued lies and rumours being spewed by the other political parties as the September 1 polls approach. Jagdeo pointed out that as the PPP/C approaches the electorate ahead of the upcoming elections, it does so with a sense of pride after having delivered on all of its commitments made to the Guyanese people in 2020 over the last five years – something which the APNU+AFC Coalition failed to do during its tenure.
“If I had a cake shop, I wouldn’t put them to run my cake shop, much less run a country… Only one party will be there to lead this country – PPP… Elections are won when you vote…don’t put your children’s future at risk. Get involved, go online, and make sure everyone in this region comes out on election day,” the General Secretary declared.