The DNC is once again encouraging Guyanese to consider leadership positions in the Democratic National Congress, forming a full slate to offer Guyanese in time for the November 2025 General Elections. While feedback has been great, I suspect that as at the last General Elections, interested persons were rightly concerned that I would have held too much power in any development of the party. I sought to address this for the 2025 elections by allowing all Guyanese to cast their hats into the ring for all positions of candidacy from the President, Vice-president(s), Prime Minister, to the other ministerial portfolios.
Additionally, I have decided not to offer myself as a contestant for any of the candidate positions to give additional encouragement to persons with requisite skill sets, but who might consider they would lose against me as a contestant for any of the positions. As previously stated, my primary goal is building a strong enough party to win more than 50 percent of the votes for a majority in parliament. The full slate of the DNC is therefore open to all Guyanese.
It was again mentioned to me recently that I should run to get a seat in parliament. I wish to state that I am not interested in politics for the sake of power, argument in parliament, or publicity. My goal of reclaiming our government for Guyanese from the PPP and PNC would not be achieved if six of the DNC’s candidates won seats in parliament. We need thirty-three seats for a full majority, and thirty-three seats and more is what we will get if we do a good job of getting a strong and attractive slate for voters. Guyanese are fed-up, and have had enough of Jagdeo, the PPP and PNC. With a good offering, I have no doubt that the DNC would very likely secure a landslide in 2025.
There are many qualified Guyanese who we know can do much better than anyone in the PPP or PNC. These persons are seriously asked to consider that they are being called to service, to lead Guyanese into their future blessed with a much better life than either the PPP or PNC could hope to provide. Sugar workers going back to 2010 will get money and agricultural support if they choose to remain in the sector. Rice farmers will be guaranteed world market-aligned prices for their paddy, all public servants will get an across-the-board ‘living wage’ adjustment, in addition to many tax reforms to ease the cost of living for Guyanese. Unemployment insurance is on the table, as well as adjustments for pensioners and persons receiving state benefits to allow them to live their lives more comfortably.
Potential candidates for the DNC’s slate must know that the welfare of our children, our future generations, depends on them. We are better than the PPP and PNC. To fail is to have either back in power in 2025; to fail is to put inferior and corrupt persons in government to manage our affairs; to fail is to agree to giving away our money to Exxon and other foreign economic pirates; to fail is to have the disasters of our past be the future of our children.
Respond to Guyana’s call and take the reins of our future, chart a course of prosperity for all Guyanese, sugar workers, rice farmers, other workers in the private sector, nurses, teachers, joint services and other public servants, our business community. We are living in our future. Let us not squander it to the folly of Jagdeo and his PPP acolytes, or the vote-rigging PNC. Your time is now. Our time is now.
Craig Sylvester,
Party Leader, DNC.