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Reply to "Remembering Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar - July 16, 1973"

ba$eman posted:
Gilly, you are a shameless lying bastard and classless, I have lost all respect for you!

No problem. I participated in the PPP election campaign in 1973 and I know what I'm talking about. I can see it's an inconvenient truth to you, but that's not my problem. I'm going to make one more point in addition to all my comments in this thread, as follows:

After 1973 Burnham called another general election in 1980. The rules did not change. Same overseas voting. Same proxy voting. No counting of ballots at place of poll. Etc. Knowing that the elections would be rigged under those conditions, the WPA boycotted the election and urged the PPP to do the same. Jagan ignored the WPA and contested. On paper, in press releases, he still demanded that votes be counted at polling places. However, at public meetings he studiously refrained from telling supporters to secure ballot boxes or accompany them to Georgetown for centralized counting. Why? Because Jagan did not want more ballot box martyrs. Plain and simple.

Likewise, after 1980 Hoyte called general elections in 1985 under the same Burnhamite rules. Again, the WPA boycotted knowing that rigging would take place. And again, Jagan contested. Gilbakka was a candidate and spoke at a number of public meetings, along with Jagan at some of them. He studiously avoided telling the people to secure ballot boxes. Why? He remembered the 1973 fiasco in the Corentyne. Plain and simple. As it turned out, with Robert Corbin as his campaign manager, Hoyte was a bigger rigger than Burnham. He gave the PPP only 8 seats. But unlike 1973 when the PPP boycotted parliament even though it had got more seats from Burnham, in 1985 Jagan meekly accepted the election results and took up his 8 seats in parliament. I say no more.

FM
Last edited by Former Member
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