GEORGETOWN, Guyana, (DPI) – The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has expressed optimism about collaborating with the incoming US administration under president-elect Donald Trump to counter false narratives circulated by the opposition.
PPP general-secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo conveyed these remarks during a press conference on Thursday, where he extended congratulations to Trump on his decisive win in the US presidential election.
Dr Jagdeo emphasised that the PPP is eager to work with Trump’s administration to counter longstanding claims spread by the opposition, specifically the PNCR-led APNU+AFC coalition. According to him, the PNCR-led Coalition, as well as elements aligned to it, has repeatedly presented misleading information to US officials, including claims that the PPP is corrupt, racially biased, and poorly manages Guyana’s oil revenues.
“For the past several years they have been meeting US government officials and have been telling a bunch of lies to them. Almost every mission that comes to Guyana from the United States of America, they have a standard mantra – the PPP is racist, the PPP is corrupt, the PPP is incompetent, the PPP squanders oil money and the PPP doesn’t like the United States of America, and we’re in bed with the Chinese. This is the standard narrative. Every mission that comes to Guyana, I can predict what they will say to them. And of course, the facts are very different and we have also been meeting with those officials to set the record straight,” he said.
Jagdeo highlighted transparency in the PPP’s governance as evidence of their commitment to fairness, referencing, as one example, the publicly accessible data on the National Procurement and Tender Board Administration (NPTAB) website. He contrasted this with the APNU+AFC’s five-year tenure, during which, he claims, contract details were withheld from public view in violation of Guyana’s Procurement Act.
“People are very much, particularly international organisations and bilateral partners, they want to see that the system is a fair one – for their investors too. Right now a fair system can only operate successfully if it is transparent and people have information…one example, is if you look on the NPTAB (National Procurement and Tender Board Administration) website, if you look at the five years under APNU+AFC you will not see one bit of information, as is required by law – the Procurement Act of Guyana…so you can know who got the contract, the price of the contract and the procurement method used….that was absent for the entire period of APNU.
“Right now, from September 2021 to now, every contract procured through NPTAB is on that website…these are the sorts of things we use when the opposition go with their shrill voices there and lying through their teeth. We have to use real evidence to show the improvements in the system,” he said.
The PPP, Jagdeo added, has maintained a strong working relationship with Trump’s prior administration and expects this rapport to continue when Trump resumes office in January 2025.
“We are looking forward to continue to debunk all the lies with the new administration in the US,” the PPP general-secretary said.
Trump’s return to the White House comes after he secured a landslide victory in the 2024 election, amassing both the popular vote and more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed for a win.
This election marks a historic return to office for Trump, who, at 78, will be the oldest president in US history and the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland in 1893. His opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris, has conceded and urged her supporters to facilitate a peaceful transition. Trump is set to be inaugurated on January 20, 2025, officially commencing his second term.
