APNU+AFC nonsense: Science will never ascertain all the reasons why people vote

Feb 24, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – In a safe liberal constituency in the last American elections, the Democratic Party lost the House seat to a Republican in Staten Island. Statistics reveals in that election too that Trump (unbelievably) collected votes from Hispanics, Muslims, sub-continent Indians and Asians. How do you explain that strangeness? The Democratic Party lost several House seats to Republicans. A globally liked personality like Justin Trudeau became a minority Prime Minister in Canada. The Labour Party in the UK had its worst showing in its history in the last British poll. Owen Arthur did nothing wrong in Barbados yet was defeated.
The analysts can look at broad trends in the determination of how people vote. A perfect example is American Blacks. They will go to the poll in record numbers to vote for Black candidates. But there are always tiny hidden variables that science will not pick up. Space will not allow for all the examples connected with the situations cited above. But here are a few of them.
Arthur lost because of voter fatigue not because of any bad performance. Barbadians simply wanted a change from a prime minister who they felt was around for too long. Many Americans from India, Pakistan and Arab countries do not like the Democratic Party because of factors such as ideology and skin colour.
Arabs and Middle class Pakistanis in the US feel that in terms of colour, they are white people too and they view the Democratic Party as having too many Blacks in it. Latin people in Florida are anti-communists who see the Democratic Party as a left-wing outfit. Labour was routed in the UK because of one man – their leader Jeremy Corbin. He came across as indecisive as opposed to his opponent but Jeremy Corbin was the one the British electorate saw as a decisive, self-confident person. Trump should not have collected those votes and Labour should have beaten Boris Johnson. We expected that to happen for reasons we thought were obvious. But there are tiny, invisible variables at work that make people vote that science cannot bring to light. We should apply this paradigm to Guyana. Obviously, there were the macro-factors why APNU+AFC lost. But the PPP did not win a landslide victory. Small parties picked up a whopping 9000 votes.
Is it possible that there were some small factors at play that made the APNU+AFC lost in addition to those obvious ones that the entire world knows about? Here is an exploration on that topic. I live on the Railway Embankment. The Caricom Secretariat separates my house from the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC). Parliament has been meeting at the ACCC since September last year. There hasn’t been one instance of traffic disruption that tortured travellers as when the APNU+AFC was in office.
From 2015 to 2018, the government of APNU+AFC, when Parliament was in session, disrupted the lives of Region Four citizens in excruciating ways that were simply unbearable. Lombard Street at the junction with Princes Street then Avenue of the Republic at the junction with Regent Street were completely blocked off creating absolute chaos that spread deep into western Georgetown.
I know about this madness because I was caught in it several times and guess where? At Bourda Market because the traffic backup touched the district of Bourda. It may appear implausible to you but is it possible that such incidents turned people completely off and they felt the APNU+AFC regime was stupid to have done such things and did not vote for them in 2020?
What about the stories of the Ministry of Agriculture executing people’s puppies at Ogle airport because they did not have documents to show which country the pets originated from? This country has thousands of animal lovers who felt they couldn’t vote back the ANU+AFC philistines into power who kill lovely dogs.
Then there was the imposition of dog licence. What went through the heads of Minister of Finance Winston Jordan and President Granger to demand people take out licence for their dogs? Then there was that whopping increase in licence for horse/donkey carts.
You may not see the connection between these factors and the loss of the 2020 election but I contend there was one. Science just cannot determine all the factors that make people vote in and vote out politicians. I believe the incidents, which I described did play a part in how people voted in 2020. I know that because of the puppy deaths at Ogle airport, I could no longer stand the APNU+AFC clowns and wanted them not only out of power but out of my country. I say in all honestly; I am glad they are gone forever.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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