PPP/C, PNC not ruling out external observers at congresses this year

The PPP/C and the PNC have not ruled out having external observers at their respective congresses this year saying the decision would have to be taken by the parties’ electorate, according to PPP/C General Secretary Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, and PNC Leader Aubrey Norton.

“We don’t generally [have external observers]. We have observers [who are] the delegates themselves. Since this is an internal thing, the delegates can choose observers, they can go in,” Jagdeo explained on Thursday when asked by the Stabroek News if the party would allow it.

“…I can put it to the congress. That is not a decision for the General Secretary of the party. We can put it there to the congress,” he expressed.

When Norton was asked, he too said, “It is a decision for the congress.”

However, Norton expressed more skepticism as he opined that in Guyana not many observers are truly impartial. “With the amount of bribery and corruption going on in this country, you have to be very careful with that [having external observers],” he noted.

No date has been set for either, but the PPP/C congress will be held in the first week of May of this year, according to Jagdeo, while Norton informed that the PNC’s Congress will be held before the end of August this year.

Jagdeo explained that at the PPP/C’s congress, there is an almost impossible margin for error in the voting process since the casting of ballots is done in full view of the entire congress and counting of the votes are open to observers.

“The voting is done in the open. Everybody sits down and they tick off and they put it in a box and then it goes into a room and people are there,” he explained.

“We have an open system. You don’t go in a booth and vote and all of that. You have a big open hall. People get their ballot paper [and] they look at it there. They sit and vote and then they go around with boxes and they put these [the ballots] in then they go and count the ballots and you have selected people who can observe it, from regions et cetera, the count.”

On external observers, he said in jest, “You want APNU to send in observers for us?”

The PPP/C General Secretary said that their system is above aboard. “Within the party that is where you have to ensure that democracy is done.”

Jagdeo said that his position of General Secretary will also have to be determined by party members as it would “be presumptuous of me to say I will be General Secretary,” after the congress.

“I will decide to contest at that time but right now I am GS until those elections are held,” he stressed.

He said that committing to a role as General Secretary was tantamount to him saying that “I own this party” when everyone knows that party leaders are determined through voting. “I am General Secretary until that point in time.”

Jagdeo had also previously said that that any decision to depart from the party’s founding Marxist-Leninist ideology will be a decision for members of that body.

“That is a question for Congress. The General Secretary of a party doesn’t; cannot alter the constitution of a party on his own. It is a question for congress,” Jagdeo had last year said when asked if plans were on stream for the removal of Marxism-Leninism from the party’s constitution.

“I have my positions and I am not going to, in the public domain, explore this. I will explore it at the appropriate levels of the party. We have consistently been a working class party. We are not wedded to ‘isms’. We want to make sure all of our people make progress, in this country. We want to work for poor people and get into the middle class of society. So any ‘ism’ whatsoever is inconsistent with that, it cannot continue to be the prevailing philosophy of our party,” he added.

Jagdeo said that ideological positions are for “armchair” discussions as government has to pragmatically and practically choose methods and ways to better the living standards of the poor. He said the party’s Congress will have to decide if it wants ideological principles to remain in its constitution. The 32nd Congress is overdue and according to the party’s constitution, it should have been held in 2019. The last PPP/C Congress was held in 2016 and another, as per guidelines of the party’s constitution should have been in 2019, but none has been held since. Jagdeo had in late March said that the Congress was delayed in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the party’s last Congress, held in Essequibo from December 17 to 19, 2016, Jagdeo was elected General Secretary of the party by secret ballot. That was the first time that Jagdeo had held the post of leader of the party.

He had secured the most votes (718) for the party’s Central Committee (CC), for which 35 members were elected; 98 votes ahead of Dr Frank Anthony (620), giving him a mandate to take the reins of the party. Longserving executive member and current government Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira (583) emerged third.

Current President Irfaan Ali (511) who had placed fifteenth in 2013 came at number eight in 2016.

There will be great interest in President Ali’s performance at this upcoming congress.

Party executives told this newspaper that they had no doubt that Ali will receive the highest votes at the congress. “It is a no-brainer that he will have the most votes. Forget all you hear from this person or that person. All of that is just conjecture. The PPP/C members knows what time it is… they know,” one executive posited.