See the full statement from the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic PPP/C below:
The official swearing-in of the newly elected Government of Guyana on August 2, 2020, led by His Excellency, Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali, was without question a watershed moment for the preservation of the democratic credentials of Guyana.
The PPP/C Administration is already two years into the economic and social transformation of Guyana which will see the empowerment of every citizen in every part of the country.
The government has been keeping true to the elections manifesto of the ruling party to build a multi-dimensional economy that is robust for national transformation and resilient to global shocks.
The housing transformation programme which commenced prior to 2015 has been expanded and intensified to meet the needs of a considerable number of Guyanese seeking to become homeowners.
Land allocation, affordable turn-key housing, more accessible mortgage facilities with lower interest rates, construction material assistance and a government home construction assistance facility are among the initiatives already available across the country.
This government-led drive is being augmented by significant private sector developments in gated communities and villages, condominiums, and high-rise residential complexes.
Diversification of the traditional agriculture sector has been prioritised for transition to more large-scale and scientific approaches to crop production and animal husbandry, while the value-added aspects of the industry rooted in agro-processing have already begun blossoming in several areas, including fresh milk production.
The expanded and integrated tourism sector across the areas of hospitality, wellness, sports, and ecological tourism are undergoing rapid transformation.
Several internationally branded hotels are already under construction, while international grade eco resorts will begin taking shape shortly. These will generate jobs for Guyanese.
Construction of a specialty paediatric and maternity hospital will commence shortly, and the facility will be furnished with European equipment and managed with Mount Sinai health systems and protocols while supported by a wider health sector complex featuring other specialty services and institutions of learning and research.
With regards to infrastructure, new interconnecting highways across the east coast and west coast, east and west banks, the Corentyne and the Linden-Soesdyke highway and the Pan-American route to Brazil are all under some phase of development or construction.
New bridges across the Demerara and the Corentyne rivers will fully connect the Guyana Shield and the new modern city earmarked for the Timehri-Soesdyke area.
Meanwhile, new industrial estates are planned for the east and west coasts and Linden.
Natural gas being piped to shore from the offshore oil and gas basin, along with wind, solar and hydroelectric power will comprise a sustainable energy mix to power the country’s economic transformation at lower costs.
Since returning to office, the government has made interventions to remove more than one hundred burdensome taxes that were levied by the APNU-AFC Administration, while restoring many social benefits which the Coalition scrapped.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, cash grants were issued to all Guyanese, while farmers, entrepreneurs, persons with permanent disabilities and those receiving dialysis treatment benefited from larger grants.
Similarly, interventions have been undertaken to stabilise the cost of basic food items and fuel as Guyana and the rest of the world grapples with inflation driven by external factors of COVID-19 and the Ukraine war. The Government is committed to monitoring prices and is prepared to undertake more interventions to cushion the effects on citizens.
Amerindian Community Service Officers were rehired, the land titling project for hinterland communities has recommenced and development programmes of villages will soon be re-incorporated into the economic model of the Expanded Low Carbon Development strategy 2030.
The president’s ‘One-Guyana’ vision, intended to involve and include every citizen at home and abroad in the transformation process, has begun in earnest and is gaining momentum.
Government is fully engaging with all Guyanese in communities across Guyana through Cabinet outreaches with feedback from these meetings helping to define policies, prioritise projects and shape a new approach on how Government responds to citizens.
Today, as we mark two years since the ‘triumph of democracy’ in Guyana, let there be no mistake nor ambiguity about our resolve as a Government to prevent and address any actions or activities that would threaten the foundations and pillars of our democratic society.
Those who are focused on drumming up racial hostilities at every opportunity in their unpatriotic quest to divide our country and torpedo our development agenda through incitement, instigation, and outright acts of terrorism, will not succeed and will be held accountable.
The Government would not be distracted by those who have embraced obstructionism to the detriment of Guyanese achieving their full potential.
When Dr. Ali was sworn in as Guyana’s nineth, democratically elected executive President, along with senior Cabinet appointees on August 2, 2020, it marked the ‘Triumph of democracy’.
Scores of journalists, social media reporters and influencers with smart phones and ‘live stream’ access were present with the observers at every polling station across the country and later converged at the command-and-control Centre of the Guyana Elections Commission to witness the results tabulation process.
None of that mattered as when the APNU-AFC Coalition government realised it had lost, a plan was orchestrated to steal the elections which plunged the country into one of the darkest episodes in our history that would last five long months.
Those who perpetrated the acts, meant to steal the elections, now face prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.
President Ali and the PPP/C Administration have worked tirelessly to commence the process of re-examining our institutional frameworks and constitutional architecture needed to safeguard the integrity of our electoral process and democracy itself.
The Government is well advanced with electoral reforms and will transition to broader constitutional reforms in the coming months.
Guyana’s transformation will succeed, while the ballot box and the revised provisions of the ‘Representation of the People Act’ will continue to be the basis of our democratic system for elections, and the integrity of the electoral process which produces a government that reflects the will of the people, will remain sacrosanctly protected.
