`Surely, small parties cannot be that stupid

Oct 23, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The Chronicle had the sickening nastiness on Monday to run a front page story berating the birth of small parties that intend to contest the 2020 poll. APNU’s biology is fraudulent. Only the PNC has physical structure and electoral physiology in APNU.
From its birth until it virtually fizzled out, the WPA never held a congress to which its leadership was subjected to the vote of members. For 25 years, Rupert Roopnaraine and Clive Thomas were co-leaders by virtue of the fact that that was a permanent fact.
In APNU, there is the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by Keith Scott. Scott was and is the only member of the NDA.
The two other organisms in APNU are CN Sharma’s outfit, Justice For All Party, and the Guyana Action Party. Who in Guyana believe and accept that any of the tiny branches of APNU could on their own win a hundred votes much less five thousand for a parliamentary seat?
If these infinitesimal units combine without the PNC, they still will not gather 500 votes, much less 5000.
For all intent and purpose, APNU is the PNC. Why then should the controllers of the Chronicle ridicule the formation of small parties? In fact, some of the names in those new entities are not overnight carpetbaggers. In many of those organisations are names Guyanese should not dismiss lightly.
We have the five serious contending parties so far. I have included Shuman’s party since there is no official statement that he has joined the APNU+AFC bandwagon. Here is what I believe. If they pull 3000 votes each, that is 15,000 votes wasted because none of them will secure on their own a seat in parliament.
I honestly think if Shuman goes alone, he could make one or two parliamentary seats. ANUG is likely to pick up votes from those who are too decent to have resting on their conscience the consciousness that they gave the PNC and the PPP their votes. ANUG could make a seat or two.
I think Ruel Johnson will tap into the youth vote with a good showing. Robert Badal and Nigel Hinds could secure enough votes to take a seat. The two famous lawyers in Berbice that formed the Federal United Party may have a problem because unlike the other newcomers and unlike Shuman’s outfit, only Berbicians will vote for them and those voters could easily be persuaded by the PPP not to split the ballot.
If the small parties come together as soon as possible, put egos aside, put Guyana first, then I think Guyana will see a new third force that will rise from the ashes of the AFC.
There is the possibility, in my opinion, that a united third force can secure more than three seats. You need just one seat to create a minority government. Three seats are going to the united small parties will allow for a serious redistribution of power and immediate constitutional reform.
Going it alone will definitely make Guyanese dismiss these third parties. People will see them as opportunists, just wanting to reach parliament and will frown on them on the day of marking the X.
All the people who make up the leadership of these parties have to know that the moment of truth has arrived.
If the PNC (forget about the AFC; it died since 2016) gets back in office, it will be the same old story – hogging of power, ethnic patronage, lip service to inclusion, lip service to democracy, wild, incestuous spending of state funds among other depravities. If the PPP wins, the identical canvas will be painted.
Here is my inflexible opinion. If the election is not tampered with and if the small parties with those big names they have unite, there is going to be a minority government of either the PPP or PNC. Both Leviathans are going to be short by about three seats.
Here is where Guyana will leave its sordid past behind. The first demand of the third force should be sweeping constitutional changes that extirpate the winner-takes-all system that we have lived with since the British allowed for national elections in 1957 after the suspension of the constitution in 1953.
The more I write about the winner-takes-all culture of Guyana, the 2015 election results keep tormenting my mind. One contender won the general election by point 3 percent and administers Guyana by itself. How can that be morally encouraging to any society? The Guyanese people have come to realise that seven thousand sugar workers were removed from their employment by a policy of a government that the sugar workers did not vote for and that barely won the election.

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