MELANIE, EAST COAST DEMERARA – Prime Ministerial Candidate of the A Partnership for National Unity, APNU, Juretha Fernandes provided a raw reckoning with what it means to be a woman, a mother, or a jobless youth in Guyana today.
Fernandes, on Sunday night used the East Coast stage not just to attack the PPP government, but to put the spotlight on the human cost of its policies.
Her speech, given before a passionate crowd in Melanie, wasn’t just about politics, it was about survival. “Women are disappearing. Girls are being abused. And nobody seems to care,” Fernandes said, referencing a disturbing rise in gender-based violence, including a recent case involving a missing teenager from Pomeroon that she says police have all but ignored.
“What are we telling women in this country? That they’re on their own?” The audience, many of whom were women, stood in silence, some shaking their heads, others muttering “yes” under their breath. For Fernandes, the issue of public safety is not separate from poverty, it’s part of the same failure.
She described a society where poor communities are deliberately underdeveloped, leaving people more vulnerable, especially women. “This isn’t accidental. The government knows exactly what it’s doing,” she said.
“Keep people poor, keep them dependent, and keep power.” Fernandes accused the PPP of gutting vital programmes like the Linden Enterprise Network, which once gave working-class citizens, especially women, access to loans and small business grants.
“What happens when you take away the little help people had? You leave them at the mercy of abuse, joblessness, and desperation,” she argued. Her speech connected personal safety to political neglect, saying the breakdown in law enforcement and the erosion of support systems were making daily life increasingly dangerous for the country’s most vulnerable.
“This is more than economics. This is about the right to live free from fear,” she said.For some in the crowd, Fernandes’ words rang painfully true. “Nobody listens until it’s your daughter,” one woman said quietly after the rally.
As the general and regional elections approach on September 1, Fernandes is clearly betting that voters, especially women, are ready to push back against a system they feel has failed them.
Her rallying cry was not just for votes, but for justice. And in a country where “bread” and “safety” are increasingly hard to come by, that message might just cut through.
