THE WPA IS BACK TO ITS OLD TRICKS

Mar 28, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

When the PNCR elected its presidential candidate, that process represented a contest between contesting factions within the party; not faction that can seriously harm party unity but factions nonetheless.
The concern with which faction would win led to a close race in which the party elected a former soldier to be the party’s presidential candidate. In making that choice, the party faithful would not have been unmindful of the ability of their candidate to win broad-based national support.
However, the party was also in discussions with miniscule political parties as part of attempts to forge an alliance. But their candidate was supposed to be their’s, not the coalition.
If those smaller parties, including the WPA have their way, the PNCR’s candidate may well lose out in a bid to represent the coalition because instead of endorsing Mr. Granger as the consensus candidate of the proposed alliance, there is now talk about the grouping identifying suitable candidates for the prime ministerial and presidential slots.
The WPA is supposed to be part of this coalition. Unable to muster the resources or the votes to contest the elections on its own, the party which had in the past accused the PNC of having blood on its hands in relation to the death of Walter Rodney is now linking up with the very party to contest this year’s elections. And as it did within the PCD, it will no doubt have its views as to who is a suitable consensus candidate and who is not.
Within the PCD, the WPA was viciously opposed to Dr. Jagan being the consensus presidential candidate for the PCD. It opposed his nomination and ended up supporting the candidature of a group outside of the PCD, GUARD.
The WPA is back to its old tricks again. But if it believes that the PNCR is going to fall victim to those tricks it had better think again. The PNCR is not going to budge from the position that its presidential candidate will have to lead any joint opposition. And considering the presumed electoral support of the WPA and the other parties, the PNCR would be foolish to even talk about the two top positions. Those two top positions have to be reserved for the PNCR since the other parties looking to ride to political power on the strength of the PNCR’s support simply do not have the electoral appeal to bring anything other than window-dressing to the coalition.
What is even more laughable is that there is also a proposal to get rid of the Executive Presidency if the coalition gets into power. Here it is that the PNCR has gone to a great deal of trouble to appoint a presidential candidate, but only to now agree that when that candidate wins the presidency, then the position is going to be dispensed with. Why then go to all the trouble of finding a prime ministerial and presidential candidate if at the end of the day, through constitutional amendments there will be no executive president.
And who does the coalition intend to gain sufficient support to be able to change the constitution? In 1970, Burnham achieved a political miracle when he won in excess of 70% of the votes cast. Is the joint coalition in the making, hoping to repeat this performance and does it really believe that this is possible at this time?
The PNCR should have learnt from its PNCR One Guyana experiment in the last elections. It did worse that it did in 2001 and therefore it makes no sense for that party to align with marginal forces which cannot bring even a seat to the grouping.
In the end the PNCR will simply insist on having its own way and all those, including the WPA, who wish to see consensus prime ministerial and presidential candidates will have to accept what the PNCR says.
This is how things will work out within that arrangement. The WPA and the other groupings are simply “making up numbers”. The PNCR will ensure that its presidential candidate is the choice of the coalition and the WPA will have to explain how it is that it was opposed to Dr. Jagan being the PCD’s presidential candidate but is not opposed to whomever the PNCR imposes on the coalition.
It is left to be seen who the WPA will propose as the presidential candidate and prime ministerial candidate and just whose names it will pull out its political hat.
But what does it matter who it proposes? The PPP cannot lose the elections. The Guyanese people are not going to put this country back into the hands of the PNCR or any coalition involving the PNCR, not after the long, hard grind to restore the economy.

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