ON Monday, President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali announced that Guyana will vote for who it thinks has the best plan to take the country forward over the next five years. He named September 1st this year as the date for elections.
This date caught some politicians by surprise as they were expecting the date to come later. The opposition commissioners held a press conference soon after, in which they accused the GECOM Chair of acting unilaterally and illegally when it comes to advising the President on the timeline GECOM would be prepared for the holding of the polls. A number of reasons were advanced that painted the picture of a GECOM that was unprepared internally and corrupted. Simply put, according to the opposition GECOM Commissioners, the entity allegedly was not ready for the polls.
GECOM fired back, through its Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh, dismissing everything that the opposition Commissioners told the media, branding it as an attempt to undermine the system and GECOM itself. The strongly worded statements outlined how the GECOM Chair arrived at the timeline provided to the Head of State.
At this point, Azzrudin Mohamed had indicated that he is running for president and would not be coalescing with the PPP nor the PNC. He made it clear that he would announce, in a couple of days, his broad team of members, which would be made up of defectors from both parties. After all, he was charged with tax evasion, and it is a known fact that the US government has sanctioned him and his family for being part of a massive gold-smuggling ring in the Caribbean and cheating the government out of taxes in billions of dollars in revenue. This did not stop him from declaring that he wanted to change Guyana’s future.
PPP General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, said his party is prepared and ready for the polls. He said it will maintain its hold on political power and form the next government after democratic elections. He did not shy away from announcing plenty of surprises during the upcoming weeks. He was confident, almost excited, to say the PPP/C would defend its astonishing record in office and gladly compare it to its main competitors for the public to decide.
Then, the leader of the PNC and Chairman of APNU, Aubrey Norton, announced his party was ready for the polls and believed it would unseat the PPP/C government. Norton immediately went into party election mode, saying his party had the right plans for Guyana. The party also announced its coalition with the WPA party as this column had predicted months in advance. The AFC followed in the usual way, stating it too was ready for the polls with party leader Nigel Hughes announcing a coalition of broad-based support. Hughes, too, believes that the AFC would form the next government.
All in all, the president has set everything in motion now. All parties are ready and the national parliament will be dissolved after Monday.
Firstly, the next three months will be interesting. Guyanese will have the power to choose whoever they believe could set the country on the road to achieving more success and strength, making Guyana more of the envy of the world in terms of the unprecedented development that would occur here. Guyanese will listen to their leaders intentionally during this time and frankly list everything they want to see addressed. Guyanese know that their votes matter and democracy matters, so they will be in the position to vote freely without fear for the next government.
That, of course, is not to say Guyanese must not be wary of all the fake and gloomy promises that politicians will make to seek to capture their votes. Objectivity and truthfulness must be their only choices during this period. Guyanese must be bold enough to put their ethnicities and race aside and vote on the basis of issues. They must note that an ethnic card would not work and any division that is deliberately made these people must be sharply rejected as they are one, just different preferences for which party should lead.
Secondly, the date chosen by the president is both constitutional and legal. The president was not misled by the GECOM chair. The GECOM chair must continue to have the same energy and responses to quickly answer the misinformation that is and will be swirling around about GECOM and its work.
President Ali knows what he is doing by setting that date. He is deliberate and strategic. After all, the President is always working for the people, and this campaign will be a test for him to know how his policies and measures have impacted the populace so far. This election will prove to the president whether popularity and hard work translate into success. He must demonstrate that he has confidence, this time round, in GECOM and its secretariat. He must also ensure that the polls are free and fair.
The president should be mindful of everything that is a security threat to the elections. He must ensure that GECOM is operating according to the law and has the duty to ensure a smooth and peaceful transfer of power, should that be the case.
Thirdly, Jagdeo has every reason to welcome President Ali’s election-date announcement. He knows that his party has done well since it took office. Dr Jagdeo knows too that the policies have revolutionised life in Guyana, modernising the way of life. He has every right to be ecstatic because President Ali and his group of ministers have done the people’s work, achieving everything they promised and said they will do from making the University of Guyana free, giving GOAL scholarships to 39, 000 students to their economic policies which saw every category of people benefitting from cash grants of some sort or the other. But he knows what he is up against. He knows that the misinformation and lies about his party will form a big part of this campaign and he must be front and centre to correct it, by ensuring that he makes sure the voters are armed with the facts and truth.
Dr Jagdeo has managed to keep the party in check and firmly together. He has unified the PPP/C and made it more appealing to the masses, especially the non-traditional groups. For the first time, Jagdeo’s party is truly diversified, attracting large pockets of people from other ethnicities regardless of age, gender, social class and creed.
He has to make sure that the PPP/C improves his party’s election victory, as just a simple majority will not do. He must make sure the PPP wins the elections handsomely and his legacy depends on this.
Fourthly, Mohamed entering the race was predictable. Anyone who has their backs against the wall and who fears their empire is crumbling right before their eyes would look for a way out. He has sealed what could be seen as his proverbial tomb in this country. He has entered politics and opened his family and life to attacks from all sides. And the public knows the story of the Mohameds is not squeaky clean. In the coming weeks, the public will look forward with bated breath to hearing from Mohamed. He will have to face the tunes of the media and the people.
No one will speak for him and tell him how to say the right things. It will be a pageant right before the eyes of the public, and the public will see Mohamed in possibly clear and unfiltered light like never before. Also, popularity, likes and shares do not translate into votes or guarantee electability. Philanthropy also does not mean anything in the realm of the nasty and brutish game of politics. The Guyanese public opinion can change within a second from being entertained to serious. This is not the US, and certainly the Trump effect, with all due respect, will not happen here in local politics.
Fifthly, the opposition is in a bad state. Norton was dealt a second wave of rejection. Nobody wants him other than the PNC, and that is a stretch. He is hanging on for dear life and he has resorted to giving relevance to the WPA by coalescing with it. How desperate are both parties? Very desperate, it would appear, because the founder Forbes Burnham’s PNC killed the founder WPA’s Walter Rodney, and yet they find it ‘cute’ to become bedfellows to try and channel their lust, love and thirst for political power to defeat one single party at the polls.
In their world, the end justifies the means. There is no room for justice or morality. But, the WPA in the form of David Hinds is no different from Norton when it comes to justifying the ‘scrape head’ mentality.
And, the AFC is dead. This election result will prove this if the party is stupid enough to go to the national polls alone. It has already been rejected at the local government polls. Now, even with money and so-called resources, the AFC is a clown show because it is laughable and has a sense of false consciousness. It needs the PNC, and it does not realise this. Clinging to support from civil society is not enough.
Finally, reading the mood of the people correctly is one thing, and knowing how to adapt is another. If elections were held in Guyana tomorrow, the PPP/C would single-handedly defeat any of those challengers handsomely. Mohamed Irfaan Ali would be president and Azzrudin Mohamed would go crawling back into hiding. The PNC would continue as the opposition and probably change its alliance and name again. The AFC would be rife with internal problems and Hughes would suddenly go back to the legal profession — full-time.
But, in the end, the PPP/C has shown time and time again that it is competent and a fighter. It is ready to do battle. It is ready to win. The games have officially begun after tomorrow’s sitting of parliament.