THE opposition today is at the weakest any opposition has ever been in the history of post-slavery Guyana. Trace our history from African resistance, followed by joint organising with the indentured servants leading into formidable opposition in the early 1900s. The Ruin Belt opposition activities of 1902 to around 1915 were hard-fought struggles against the colonial government. Then came the early days of trade unionism which organised a formidable movement for adult suffrage leading into the 1930s and 1940s.
Guyana later (1940s and 1950s) saw the formation of opposition social movements which morphed into political parties, the more well-known being the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), a forerunner of the PPP, which was formed to struggle for self-determination. The PPP experienced a split, its splinter became the PNC. The two have been formidable opponents ever since. There were splinters from both the PPP and the PNC from time to time. The most potent and well-known being Walter Rodney’s WPA and later the AFC when both were in their hey- days.
At no time in our history did we have the political aura that the opposition could not unseat those who governed. Even during the days of routinely rigged elections of the 1970s and 1980s when it was easy to lose hope, the PPP in opposition always felt that it was only a matter of time. Then the PPP eventually overcame and took the seat of government when electoral democracy was restored in the early 1990s.
Since then, the PNC has experienced its share of ebb and flow, but at no time was its electoral viability and vitality in doubt. If for argument’s sake we can find some point in time when the PNC’s electoral viability was doubtful, we certainly could not say that about the combined opposition. The results of the 2011, 2015 and 2020 elections need no advocacy; it is a demonstration of opposition potency.
Coming on the heels of such potent and successful opposition movement, the nation was shellshocked when in 2025 it saw the lack of potency in the PNC and AFC, either jointly or separately. The expectation that the opposition was an alternative to the PPP withered and there was a degree of hopelessness. Opposition supporters like to know that their vote will be counted, and it will add up to something meaningful towards unseating the government. I can remember during the 2011 campaign, some momentum swung in the AFC’s favour and as a way of trying to preserve its support base, the PNC appealed to this very instinct. They employed the campaign buzzwords, “In it to win it.” That was a way of telling those inclined to vote with the opposition, to vote for APNU because the AFC could not win and their vote will be wasted.
This was the exact predicament APNU found itself in, in 2025. It was thought of as being so weak that it was incapable of dislodging the PPP. There was a growing feeling that a vote for APNU or AFC is a wasted vote.
WIN’s leader came in at a most opportune time. Riding on his philanthropic, celebrity and deftly notorious status like a knight in shining armour and sapped up some of the damp expectation. Despite the presence of WIN, as it would seem, many who preferred the opposition were already turned off and probably committed to not ‘wasting’ their vote. This was essentially a commitment to stay home, as demonstrated in the low turnout in many opposition strongholds.
Many voices mourning the unprecedented level of weakness in the opposition are calling for opposition unity. In their view, if the opposition unite to fight the government, they will be more successful. It is my settled view that that is a fool’s errand. The opposition cannot be made better or stronger by uniting. The big elephant in the room is the criminality that is tagged to Azruddin. Any form of unity makes him the bigger proportion of the opposition for which he will always stand as their joint leader. This is additional baggage the PNC will have to carry way into its political future.
It is Azruddin who is most responsible for the unprecedented unfortunate position the PNC is in. How do you effectively co-operate with your chief destroyer? There is a large segment of opposition-aligned voting population that the PPP have not yet found a way to entice. Either it does not yet possess the innate tools or has not yet figured out the right message, but on the flip side of that, WIN has demonstrated that it has the capacity to capture this demographic. So, as of right now, the PPP is not nearly a threat to the PNC’s survival and recovery as WIN is. The PNC is therefore facing a conundrum laden with severe dissonance.
My view is that the PNC has less to gain from opposition unity. The PNC has a golden opportunity to demonstrate that despite its painful devastation, it can still be a formidable opposition while taking strong, reasoned and principled positions. It needs to show that it is not opposing for the sake of opposition. Let WIN maraud like drunken madmen. Whenever they can carve out a reasonable position offer support, otherwise, navigate these treacherous pathways by confronting the issues that are more likely to reclaim lost support base.
In this regard, the PNC’s first task is to find a way of (at a minimum) making its 12 MPs feel like 16. It has to prove to the voters that it is at least just as big as WIN and probably more formidable. For its survival, the greatest need is for PNC unity, not opposition unity, there is a big difference. If the PNC is unable to grasp this difference, then active collaboration with WIN is a kiss of death.