President Irfaan Ali commissioned a new Medical School building at UG on Tuesday April 1. Almost every other day, a new major building, a new major highway, a new major bridge is commissioned. Even as new infrastructure become reality under President Irfaan Ali, the President and the Vice President, who is also the PPP’s General Secretary, are talking about new development programs. For example, there is talk about a new GPHC, a new Cancer Treatment Center, new municipal airports, new highways, new housing schemes, new schools, creation of new high-paying jobs, etc. There are also talk about programs to support people, such as a new cash grant initiative.
It is no wonder, therefore, thatpeople across the globe are acknowledging Guyana’s economic transformation, not merely just as a possibility; but a reality unfolding before our eyes. The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, recently hailed Guyana as “one of the most exciting places in the world,” emphasizing its potential for transformational growth. The foreign affairs minister of Peru, this past week, also hailed Guyana’s transformational trajectory. Such endorsements from a global superpower underscores the significance of Guyana’s development trajectory.
But the World Bank, the IDB, Exim Banks from the USA, the UK, Europe, India, China, Africa all have given endorsements to the Guyana program. Even as Guyana has already become one of the most talked-about economic models around the world, Guyana continues to take center-stage. In July, Guyana will host and lead the launching of the Global Biodiversity Alliance, supported by world -class institutions such as Oxford University, Columbia University and the University of Miami.
All the while, with the backdrop of the PPP focused on taking Guyana to new economic and social heights, placing Guyana firmly on a path to be the developing country with the best chance to reaching developed-country status by 2050, the opposition parties are in total confusion, disarray and fighting for relevance as Elections 2025 stare menacingly at them.
GECOM had indicated they would be ready for Elections 2025 by August. The constitutional deadline for Elections 2025 is December 1, 2025. Just these two timelines narrow the actual date for elections to between September and December. Every political party had known this. Individuals who want to participate as presidential candidates ought to have known this timeline.
While the governing party, President Ali’s PPP, has until December 1 to call elections, it is likely that Elections 2025 will be held in November. The PPP’s General Secretary and Guyana’s Vice President, Dr. Bharat Jagdeo, and Guyana’s President, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, have always been consistent in informing the nation that there was and is no plan for a snap election. They have both been very pellucid that the PPP government will exhaust the full term that the constitution permits. This could only mean that elections will be held just prior to the December 1 deadline.
That we are now months into the elections’ season, and the opposition appears to be in total disarray is a revelation all by itself. If for something that people have had notice for so long, political parties and individuals are still not ready, then it begs the pertinent question: are they ready to govern Guyana and keep Guyana on its journey to a developed country status?
That political parties are not ready for Elections 2025 is an indictment. The PNC is a political party that is approaching its 70th anniversary. It has no excuse. The WPA is almost 50 years old. It has no excuse. The AFC is almost 20 years old. It has no excuse. Other political parties have known almost exactly when Elections 2025 will be conducted. They have no excuse.
We are in the last lap, the finishing line for Elections 2025, but there are people who want to be president who are still not ready, still not with a political party. These include AzzarzdinMohamed and Glen Lall. These two gentlemen want to be president, but they have no political parties. One believes that he can be president by using a newspaper and a radio station to promote himself and push anti-government propaganda. The other believes he can buy votes by donating a few low-income homes and a few cars while driving around with his Lamborghini. This is his idea of fighting poverty and developing a country.President Ali has called on these persons to stop hiding. Playing chicken is not a development plan.
In the meanwhile the whole gamut of opposition political parties and aspirants have no clue, no development plan, other than spreading misinformation, misrepresentation, obfuscations and absolute, naked, barefaced lies. Their idea of a political campaign is sheer propaganda.
In 2015 and 2020, the PNC and the AFC were convinced they could not win by themselves. They formed a coalition of losers by combining the PNC with several one-man political parties and calling themselves APNU and joining with the AFC. They claimed they won the 2015 elections. Indeed, they formed the government between 2015 and 2020. Those of us who were engaged in the campaign know that the PNC-led APNU/AFC coalition did not win the elections. They did succeed in pulling off a rigged Region 4 election, something they tried to repeat in 2020, but got caught.
Anyone ever wonder why the elections petition of the PPP never saw the light of day? They know that should that election petition ever gets tried in the courts, the rigging of Region 4 elections results would be revealed for all to see.
The PNC and the AFC have been coalition-talking relentlessly. They both know that they have absolutely no chance in winning an election by themselves. We know that this time around there would be no valentine arrangement. We also know that the PNC will not “bend over backwards” to give the AFC what they do not deserve.
The Guyanese people are looking on with amusement at the hilarious efforts to forge a coalition between the PNC and the AFC. Both know that they will be decimated in Elections 2025 going alone. But the AFC is playing “big and bad”. This is a party that may not be able to win a full seat in parliament should it go by itself. In LGE 2018, the AFC going it alone mustered 4% of the votes, the PNC 34% and the PPP 62%. In the LGE 2023, the AFC had a difficult time putting together a list for local government elections. The PNC barely made it past 25% in 2023. The PPP surpassed 70%. The PPP won in Bartica and Madhia for the first time. The PPP came close to winning in New Amsterdam. The PPP increased its seats in Georgetown by more than 50%.
In short the opposition proved they had lost support from their own supporters and the results were proof that the people had lost confidence in any and all of the opposition parties. At the same time, the people showed growing confidence in President Ali, the Vice President and General Secretary of the PPP, Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP government.
Since then, the migration away from the AFC and the PNC have become apparent. Its like the old saying – “they dead, but shame to close their eyes”. Ramjattan’s prophecy that should the AFC join with the PNC, it is “dead meat” has come through. Now Nigel Hughes believe that the PNC is its only chance of survival. Yet, he does not comprehend that the best way of reconciliation is to admit they are “dead meat” and take what is offered to them.
The PNC, to be fair, is a major political party still. It is true that they barely maintain that status. But we must give “Jack his jacket”. The PNC can easily claim 20% to 30% in any election in Guyana. But this is what we mean when we insist that the PNC barely can call themselves a major political party today. Before now, they could easily and confidently claim 35% to 42% of the votes in any election. That ability no longer exists. Burnham’s PNC has gradually declined. Now under Aubrey Norton, their challenge is not to win an election, but to survive as a major political party, a party capable of amassing more than 30% of the votes.
In Election 2025, going it alone, the PNC will be lucky if they cross the line with 30% of the votes. Its even a more onerous mountain to climb for the AFC which will be lucky to gain more than the 4% of the votes they amassed in LGE 2018 when they were part of an incumbent government. The AFC knows that the only value of the coalition with the PNC is to hide the fact that it has become no better than the WPA and the other one-man, one-woman parties.
That the AFC has the chutzpah to insist they must be given 40% of the seats and ministries should the coalition win is a display of arrogance and stupidity. Even worse, to insist that they must be given the presidency spot on the ticket is sheer hilarity. The fact is neither Aubrey Norton nor Nigel Hughes can rescue the PNC and the AFC.
Note we talk little about the WPA because even the miniscule reference to the WPA is more than they deserve. The fact is that the WPA has for a long time now been unable to even put forward a complete slate for any election – local government or general. It is why the WPA and David Hinds so eagerly sought the embrace of Norton and the PNC.
That President Irfaan Ali will be given a bigger mandate to serve a second term has never been even more clear. That the PPP will win a larger majority in parliament is not in doubt. The question is:can the opposition be able to mount a credible campaign in Elections 2025?