My limited view of electoral Guyana

Mar 03, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

A hush stretched over Georgetown on Sunday and built throughout the day. Expected it was, etched with shades of the profound, almost eerie in its distinctive, yet indefinable, fabric and contours. I sensed a nation suddenly awakening to its circumstances, and coming to grips, just as abruptly, with the magnitude of what is before it, the seriousness of its responsibilities, the immortality of its possibilities, given the treasured place where it is perched.
There was a lower volume to speech, a definitely lower cadence, a softer, less urgent rhythm to interactions and exchanges. The moment is here; it is now was what I grasped. All that is left is the how the realities railed against, the circumstances dreamed about, the probabilities weighed and measured, will unfold and solidify.
How will we be? How will this turn out? To where will we go? At the end of it all, the bottom-line questions: to do what with that which we have been blessed? To be how to each other? All roads lead unerringly to these nonnegotiable destinations.
How will leaders and groups be to voters, especially nonbelievers, as in those not voting for them. How will friends and neighbours be to fellow countrymen, and all of them (us) to passing strangers (also us). How will we become next Monday? Perhaps, as early as Wednesday this week, if not before?
The passions and expectations have electrified and powered us hard and uncontrolled to this challenging crossroad on the edge of a surging but unknown and tremulous destiny. As we face the inevitable uncertainties beyond this Monday, I think there has to be confidence in contemporaries and self to face the frontiers of fortune.
This is the imperative: any misfortune that accompanies the lush heritage that belongs to all of us.
It is why I say we must not hesitate; we must not shrink from the obligations of peaceful and dignified citizens, conscientious ones. Together we must face the destiny of Guyana, whatever it is, and rise to the challenge. As one. In unison.
From Sunday to Monday morning, I travel to share my brief journeys and observances of early Elections Day. It is before 6 a.m. and still somewhat dark. I crisscross from Alberttown to Cummingsburg to Brickdam and then through Lacytown, with a little bit of Wortmanville on the periphery. And there it was! The hush and the awakening and coming to grips of Sunday taking purposeful life at this quiet but stirring pre-sunrise hour.
There were these small clusters of citizens going somewhere; they were everywhere, and not coming from anywhere but going to some specific place. There were these highly unusual scenes of more pedestrians on the roads before 6 a.m. than vehicles, be they buses, taxis, or otherwise. They were not street people either.
I strongly believe that all the movement was not to work or play, but to the serious business of voting. This was confirmed when I arrived at church: the attendance was thrice the normal gathering, which almost without exception, consisted of adults, eligible voting adults mind you. On the way back from worship, including prayers for the nation and the processes of today, this was further confirmed from the increasing presences and energies on the ground.
At voting places prior to 7 a.m., the lines were there: quiet, conversational in spots, serious and focused all around. By the time I was finished, some 25 minutes later, another line of another couple dozen had formed to exercise the franchise.
I was glad to observe the professionalism in the process, the general ambience in the streets. I trust that it will hold firmly as the process intensifies along with the fevered expectations. By late evening, the two major contestants would be sure to have a sound sense of where they and their main competition stand. I trust, also, that this is not when the contingencies of different calculations and prepared objections are set in motion.
All of this is up in the air, as I write to share at just after 09:00hrs. The situation could change drastically overnight. That is where the rubber will hit the road and Guyana will gain the first insights of where temperatures and things are heading.
May it be to and for the positive as super Tuesday comes to this society.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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