Dear Editor,
Whoever is thinking for the PPP Government has clearly left their thinking cap at home. This stubborn reluctance of President Irfaan Ali and his team to “float this boat” and place Juan Edghill on administrative leave has metastasized into a self-inflicted wound that is now festering below the skin of their support base, especially among those living in the hinterlands. Let there be no mistake: the First Peoples are livid, and those Toshaos who surrendered themselves into becoming PPP mouthpieces, will soon realise they do not speak for their people. The MV Barima is a moral catastrophe. And no Toshao can sell that to grieving villagers.
The 2025 election results already revealed a complex political realignment in motion. Therefore, some analysis is useful (see table below).
Forget the APNU+AFC. From all appearances, only a political miracle can save them in 2030. But that is their funeral. The real story is the PPP’s crumbling fortress.
Region 10 has made its decision, and it is not going with the PPP in 2030. Juan Edghill’s presence in the government will be the architect of that vote loss. His presence as the PPP’s political representative to Linden is a political liability, and it is baffling why the PPP leadership is clinging to this toxic vehicle. Don’t they know they are drowning, politically?
But the true political earthquake remains Region 1. The MV Barima disaster has fundamentally altered the political landscape in that region in favour of WIN. Yes, we must accept what Bharrat Jagdeo said: “it is early days yet”. But the data and the temperature on the ground indicate an alternative viewpoint. And the political infection is rapidly spreading to the other hinterland regions, by way of the internet.
Let the numbers speak. The 2025 results expose the evidence of this political realignment:
· In Region 1, WIN gained 5 times more votes than the PPP increased by.
· In Region 4, WIN gained 6 times more than the PPP increase.
· In Regions 8 and 9, triple the PPP increase.
I deliberately omitted Regions 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 10 because the gain for WIN was so large that percentage scores became unreliable. Absolute numbers tell the better story.
Let us go deeper:
· In Region 2, the PPP lost 1,307 votes—thanks to Minister Ricky Ramraj’s poor showing while WIN gained 7,400 votes.
· In Region 3, WIN gained 12,969 votes, while the PPP gained only 204 extra votes compared to the previous election. This is Region 3—home turf of the President and Minister Deodat Indar. A major disaster for the PPP.
· In Regions 5 and 10, WIN gained 5,700 and 9,300 votes respectively more than the PPP increases.
· The real kicker is Region 6—the hometown of Cheddi Jagan, Vickram Bharrat, Zulfikar Mustapha, and Ashni Singh. In 2025, WIN gained 12,623 votes. The PPP lost 2,120 votes there—thanks to the very poor performance of Vickram Bharrat, Zulfikar Mustapha, and Ashni Singh who campaigned in that region. Not even Bharrat Jagdeo’s final mop-up could have stemmed the tide against the PPP in Corentyne.
· Finally, in Region 7, WIN gained 5,098 votes. The PPP lost 151 votes—thanks to Ministers Gail Teixeira and Pauline Sukhai’s absence from the region.
To compound the political misery for the PPP, the MV Barima tragedy has crystallized these regional grievances into a potent, permanent political liability. Therefore, when Bharrat Jagdeo jumped up and shouted “We got 36 seats!”, it was all a camouflage. It was a smokescreen to avoid explaining why the number of persons voting reduced by 21,885 votes in 2025 compared to 2020, while the WIN Team gained 109,066 new votes.
The PPP has also failed to recognise that this situation has gotten much worse since the 2025 elections for them thanks to the MV Barima. Those 21,885 voters (mainly Gen-Z), who did not vote in 2025, are voting solidly in 2030, and it will not be for the PPP or the APNU+AFC. To compound their misery, the MV Barima disaster has transformed local grievance into a national symbol of government negligence, lethargy of the PPP toward the working class, and a new awareness of the GEN-Z of the runaway plunder and corruption being practiced by senior PPP operatives.
Interesting times ahead.
Yours faithfully,
Surujdai Juglall
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