Vice President and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has dismissed as “nonsense” the suggestion that the PPP/C collaborated with the APNU in any form to influence the outcome of the recent Regional Democratic Council (RDC) elections.Speaking at his weekly press conference at Freedom House on Thursday, Dr. Jagdeo said that there was “no formal or informal collaboration” between the two major political parties, contrary to rumours that surfaced following the elections in Regions Four, Eight and Ten.“Let me make it clear, there was no formal or informal negotiation between the PPP and APNU. The only collaboration happening is between APNU and the Mohameds,” Jagdeo said.The V.P’s remarks came amid a wave of political commentary suggesting that deals were struck between parties to determine the election of regional chairpersons and vice-chairpersons. He said this week’s public debate was “dominated by talk of collaboration between the PPP and APNU,” but he was adamant: “Let me make it clear — we had no collaboration, no negotiation, no deal.”According to Jagdeo, the real collusion was between APNU and the recently formed “WIN” party, backed by the Mohamed family, whose members were sanctioned by the United States government in 2024 for alleged criminal activity.“From the moment they were sanctioned, the PPP made it clear that we would not put our country at risk by doing business with them,” Jagdeo explained.“But APNU and the Mohameds have long-standing ties, going back to when APNU was in government. They were in bed with each other then, and that collaboration has continued.”He reminded that the PPP was forced to revoke the Mohameds’ cambio and other licences following U.S. sanctions, prompting their hostility toward the government and subsequent alignment with opposition elements. “They started having secret meetings with APNU and AFC — that was public knowledge. We even saw photographic evidence of a meeting with Nigel Hughes,” Jagdeo noted.He also pointed to the recent admission by PNC member and attorney Darren Wade, who revealed that he had been “directed by APNU leadership” to file court cases on behalf of the WIN party before the September elections. “That statement alone confirmed what we already knew… that the two have been collaborating from the start,” Jagdeo asserted.Citing the recent RDC results, Jagdeo said the hypocrisy of the so-called “new democrats” within the WIN movement was clear. He detailed that in Region Four, the PPP received 87,536 votes — more than APNU’s 46,956 and WIN’s 41,627 combined — yet the two opposition groups attempted to negotiate the leadership of the region among themselves.“If they were true democrats who respected the will of the people, they would have recognised that the PPP won the plurality of votes. But instead, they were trying to ‘shaft’ the will of the people,” he said.The Vice President also cited results in Region Eight, where the PPP again secured the plurality of votes with 2,872 compared to APNU’s 2,776 and WIN’s 2,562. “Yet again, they tried to block us from leadership positions,” he stated, describing the behaviour of both opposition groups as “anti-democratic.”Jagdeo made it clear that while the PPP’s councillors were free to vote their conscience in some regions — as was the case in Region Ten — there was no instruction or alliance involving the APNU.“In Region Ten, the people voted overwhelmingly for APNU and WIN, and we accepted that. We did not interfere. But in Regions Four and Eight, the people chose the PPP, and we defended that mandate,” he stressed.Jagdeo concluded that the claims of PPP-APNU collaboration were being pushed by opposition elements “offended that their long-standing partners” failed to deliver them regional leadership roles.“They wanted an anti-democratic arrangement where the parties that lost the plurality of votes would still get leadership positions,” he said. “The PPP will not participate in any such undemocratic scheme.”The post No PPP/APNU collaboration: Jagdeo says claims of political deals are false appeared first on News Room Guyana.