Latest update June 17th, 2026 12:40 AM
PPP needs fresh young, dynamic Candidates
Dear Editor,
The PPP leadership failed to understand the sociological dynamics (what are appealing to voters) of choosing candidates who are attractive to voters – candidates in whom people repose confidence in their suitability for office, good looks, good governance, and delivery of services. The party failed to heed the message delivered by the electorate in 2011 that they were not pleased with some of the candidates and repeated the mistake in 2015 in choosing them. The poor quality of some of the PPP candidates, as revealed to me in surveys, was a major factor in people (traditional supporters) not voting for their “natural” (ethnic) party of choice and for it not attracting majority support in 2011 and 2015.
As obtained from my interviews with voters and as scholars have penned, in today’s modern world, candidates have to possess some element of charm and or charisma to win over voters. Several of the party’s candidates on the parliamentary and regional lists, including its Presidential candidate, were sorely lacking in both scores.
The 2015 PPP’s slate of candidates (without mentioning specific names) was a retrospective of the past – some from even the 1960s – and some were family members of those who had failed the party in performance and who were dull and dour, lacking charm and good looks. People said some were even lacking in intelligence. Some of the candidates could not motivate people to vote for them or the party. In short, they drained the blood and lifeline of the party causing it to lose support. Few of them have charisma. It is not that these candidates are not bright and able-bodied, but the fact of the matter is they could not bedazzle the electorate to vote for the party. Just line up some of these fellas and take a candid look at them and see what you see. You see in them political losers and misfits. The modus operandi of old, worn out candidates and some with questionable character was bound to fail. How would they attract support? People wanted new, young, dynamic candidates who were appealing.
As a writer pointed out, voters in Guyana and elsewhere, even if subliminally, respond to the Hollywood/Bollywood idea of glamour. It is appealing. This is the reality of new politics as issues don’t really attract voters as much as the good looks of candidates; even in the US, American voters are drawn to the Hollywood type – look at what is happening in the Republican Presidential contest for the nomination. In the Hollywood/Bollywood world, victory inevitably belongs to the good (and good looking) and defeat to the bad and the ugly. People will not vote for (a party with) unattractive candidates especially if the party has been around in office for a long time (like what happened to the PNC in 1992). Some of the spokespersons of the PPP were a turn off to voters; they have no appeal. When some of them spoke (and still speak), people switch off. The PPP never quite addressed this matter of unattractive spokespersons between the 2011 and 2015 elections and still does not deal with it. And it will continue to turn off voters unless it brings young, attractive, intelligent faces to be its spokespersons.
In politics, winning is the name of the game and so the party has to do whatever it takes to win. It cannot choose friends and families and expect to win support. Has one ever thought how much more support the PPP would have garnered had it not put on the list sons and daughters of influential members of the Central Committee and instead put new, competent faces? It may have collected an additional 5,000 votes – which would have meant that amount of votes less for the APNU/AFC. This would have been the difference between victory and defeat. Any party must choose those who can bring votes. The AFC, for example, brought Moses Nagamootoo from the PPP into its fold in 2011 and he brought in an equivalent of about 20,000 votes – more than enough to defeat the PPP. The APNU brought Moses and the AFC into its fold in 2015 and won. The PPP, in contrast, failed to attract decent candidates who could bring votes. Isolating and ostracizing good people like Nagamootoo and Ralph Ramkarran, instead of embracing them, cost the party votes and the government. The party has to start thinking of bringing in dynamic candidates to enhance the overall image of the party.
But as happened in 2011 and 2015, who in the party is going to listen to this recommendation?
Vishnu Bisram
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