The People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is a

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a ...

left-wing populist Left-wing populism, also called social populism, is a political ideology that combines left-wing politics with populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric often consists of anti- elitism, opposition to the Establishment, and speaking for the "com ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

. As of

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, the party holds 33 of the 65 seats in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

and forms the government. It has been the ruling party in the past as well, most recently between 1992 and 2015. In Guyana's ethnically divided political landscape, the PPP/C is a multi-ethnic organization that is supported primarily by

Indo-Guyanese Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are people of Indian origin who are Guyanese nationals tracing their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginnin ...

people.

History

The PPP was founded on 1 January 1950 as a merger of the British Guiana Labour Party led by

Forbes Burnham Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham (20 February 1923 – 6 August 1985) was a Guyanese politician and the leader of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. He served as Prime Minister of Guyana, Prime Minister from 1964 ...

and the Political Affairs Committee led by

Cheddi Jagan Cheddi Berret Jagan (22 March 1918 – 6 March 1997) was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as President of Guyana from 199 ...

, and was the first mass party in the country. It was initially a multi-ethnic party supported by workers and intellectuals. Nohlen, Dieter (2005), ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p. 354, OUP Oxford, . The party held its first congress on 1 April 1951. Its third congress was held in 1953, with Burnham unsuccessfully seeking to become party leader. The party went on to win the

1953 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1953. Africa * 1953 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland election * 1953 South African general election * 1953 Southern Rhodesian federation referendum * 1953 South-West African legislative election ...

, taking 18 of the 24 elected seats in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

, resulting in Jagan becoming Chief Minister. However, Jagan's radical social reforms led to the British authorities sending in troops shortly after the elections, claiming there was the threat of a Marxist revolution. The PPP government was removed from office and an unelected Interim Legislative Council replaced the House of Assembly.

General elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

were held in 1957, by which time the PPP had split into two factions, which competed against each other at the elections; the faction led by Jagan won nine seats, whilst the Burnham-led faction won three. Following the elections, Burnham's faction left the party to establish the Afro-Guyanese-dominated People's National Congress (PNC), establishing an ethnic divide between the two parties, with the PPP left representing Indo-Guyanese. The PPP won the 1961 elections by a 1.6% margin, but received almost double the number of seats compared to the PNC, leading to serious inter-racial violence. Convinced that Jagan was probably a Communist, the

Kennedy administration John F. Kennedy's tenure as the 35th president of the United States, began with his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with his assassination on November 22, 1963. A Democrat from Massachusetts, he took office following the 1960 p ...

used the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and forced a reluctant United Kingdom to aid a campaign by conservatives and Burnham loyalists to evict the PPP government. Riots ensued, with the hope of ousting the Chief Minister. In the 1964 elections the PPP won the most seats, but the PNC and the United Force together won more seats, and were invited to form a government. Jagan refused to step down, and had to be removed from office by Governor

Richard Luyt Sir Richard Edmonds Luyt (8 November 1915 – 12 February 1994) was the colonial Governor of British Guiana in 1964–66. He installed Forbes Burnham of the People's National Congress (PNC) as premier of a coalition government with a small bu ...

. Following independence and an outright PNC victory in the 1968 elections, the political scene became increasingly polarized by ethnicity, and in early 1970 the Burnham government declared a

republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

organized on socialist, non-aligned principles. This action co-opted much of the PPP's programme, and the PPP eventually extended limited support to the ruling party on the basis of appeals to patriotism and national unity. The controversy over this move led to the emergence of a "third force", the

Working People's Alliance The Working People's Alliance is a democratic socialist political party in Guyana. It was a consultative member of Socialist International until 2005. History The WPA was established in 1974, as an alliance of the Working People's Vanguard Par ...

(WPA) of

Walter Rodney Walter Anthony Rodney (23 March 1942 – 13 June 1980) was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include ''How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'', first published in 1972. Rodney was assassinated in Georgetow ...

, in 1979. All three major parties drew to different extents from Marxist thought, making the racial divide even more pronounced. A series of elections in the 1970s and 1980s were rigged by the PNC, who won an increasing number of seats on each occasion. A political opening was initiated by PNC President

Desmond Hoyte Hugh Desmond Hoyte (9 March 1929 – 22 December 2002) was a Guyanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1984 to 1985 and President of Guyana from 1985 until 1992. Personal Life and Education Hoyte was born on 9 March 1 ...

in the late 1980s, and free

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

were held in 1992, which resulted in a PPP/C victory and Jagan becoming president. He died in March 1997, with

Sam Hinds Samuel Archibald Anthony Hinds (born 27 December 1943) is a Guyanese politician who was Prime Minister of Guyana almost continuously from 1992 to 2015. He also briefly served as President of Guyana in 1997. He was awarded Guyana's highest nat ...

becoming president. However, Cheddi's widow

Janet Jagan Janet Rosenberg Jagan (October 20, 1920 – March 28, 2009) was a U.S.-born Guyanese politician who served as the President of Guyana, serving from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. She was the first female President of Guyana. She previou ...

was the PPP/C candidate for the presidency in the 1997 elections, which the party won, resulting in Jagan becoming the first American-born female head of state. Jagan resigned as president in 1999 due to ill-health, and was succeeded by

Bharrat Jagdeo Bharrat Jagdeo (born 23 January 1964) is a Guyanese politician who has been serving as Vice President of Guyana since 2020, in the administration of President Irfaan Ali. He had previously also held the office from 1997 until 1999, during the pr ...

, who led the PPP/C to victory in the

2001 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2001. Africa * 2001 Beninese presidential election * 2001 Cape Verdean parliamentary election * 2001 Cape Verdean presidential election * 2001 Chadian presidential election * 2001 Gabonese legislat ...

. A major scandal erupted in 2004 when farmer George Bacchus announced that he had evidence implicating the PPP/C Minister for Home Affairs,

Ronald Gajraj Ronald Gajraj (April 1952 - December 2018) was a Guyanese politician who served as the Minister of Home Affairs. He was a member of the People's Progressive Party. Biography Gajraj was a Lieutenant in the Guyana Defence Force, an attorney ...

, in the operation of "phantom

death squads A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are f ...

" that killed up to 40 people, including the brother of George Bacchus. President Jagdeo quickly dismissed the allegations, although the PNCR continued to push for a thorough investigation. Bacchus himself was assassinated on 24 June 2004, leading to further outrage and allegations of a cover-up by the PNCR. Gajraj resigned, pending an investigation by a government commission of inquiry. The following year, Gajraj was formally exonerated by the commission, which did however say that he had an "unhealthy relationship" with organized crime.Buckman, Robert T., ''Latin America 2012'', Stryker-Post Publications, 2012, p. 210. The PPP/C went on to win the 2006 elections, before Jagdeo stepped down in 2011 to allow

Donald Ramotar Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar (born 22 October 1950) is a Guyanese politician who was President of Guyana from 2011 to 2015. He was also the General Secretary of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) from 1997 to 2013. Political career Ramotar jo ...

to run as the party's presidential candidate in the elections that year. The elections saw the PPP/C win 32 seats,

A Partnership for National Unity A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is a left-wing political alliance in Guyana. History The APNU was formed in July 2011 in order to contest the 2011 general elections,Commonwealth Secretariat (2012)l. ''Guyana National and Regional Ele ...

(an alliance including the PNCR) 26 and the Alliance for Change seven. Although the opposition APNU and AFC had won a majority of seats (33), the PPP/C was able to retain power as the election rules meant that the leader of the largest single party became president. As a result, the AFC and APNU ran a combined list for the

2015 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in the year 2015. Africa * 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015 * 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015 * 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015 * 2015 Burun ...

, which won 33 seats, allowing PNCR leader

David A. Granger David Arthur Granger (born 15 July 1945) is a retired military officer who served as the 9th President of Guyana from May 2015 to August 2020. He served for a time as Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and subsequently as National Security A ...

to become president.

Election results

Note: elections denoted by ^§ were considered neither free nor fair.

Guyanese Presidents from the PPP/C

File:President Cheddi Jagan.png,

(1992–1997) File:Sam_Hinds_2006.jpg,

(1997) File:Janet Jagan.png,

(1997–1999) File:Guyana.BharratJagdeo.01.jpg,

(1999–2011) File:Donald Ramotar.png,

(2011–2015) File:Irfaan Ali Brightened.png,

Irfaan Ali Mohamed Irfaan Ali (born 25 April 1980) is a Guyanese politician who has served as the tenth and current president of Guyana since 2020. He is the first Muslim to hold the office, along with being the second Muslim head of state in the Americas ...

(since 2020)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1950 establishments in British Guiana Communism in Guyana Communist parties in South America International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties Marxist parties Political parties established in 1950 Political parties in Guyana