By: Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News
Leader of the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), Amanza Walton, has accused the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) of deliberately engineering the country’s population in a way that renders opposition votes irrelevant.
Speaking at the weekend, Walton claimed that the ruling party’s strategy includes using Commonwealth citizens for electoral gain, alleging that employment opportunities for some of these individuals are tied to political loyalty.
“What the PPP is doing — and I’ve said this for five years now — is that they’re deliberately engineering the population to make Guyanese votes irrelevant,” Walton charged.
“They can do whatever they want, and then elections happen, and because they have engineered the system — with the capture of GECOM — they can do as they like.”
The FGM leader further argued that Guyana’s electoral system has been weakened over the years to benefit the incumbent administration, stressing that urgent electoral reform is necessary to restore public confidence and fairness.
“It is vitally important that we understand why our electoral system needs urgent reform,” Walton emphasized.
With the 13th Parliament set to convene under a new political configuration, Walton acknowledged that the opposition now faces a tougher challenge, particularly as the PPP/C holds a six-seat buffer in the National Assembly.
She urged the opposition bloc to act strategically, ensuring that the government finds it politically costly to ignore opposition proposals.
Despite holding only one seat in Parliament, the FGM leader pledged to play an active role in influencing key policy and legislative decisions. However, she admitted that the task would be difficult, given the historical challenges faced by smaller parties in past parliamentary sittings.
