The AFC will be dissolved before the next general elections

Nov 21, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – In a Facebook interview over the weekend with UK-based opposition activist, Norman Brown, Khemraj Ramjattan dismissed my activism in Guyana as insignificant. I will not respond to that. I will let my pen do the talking.

It is ironic that Ramjattan should so describe me at a time when he and his party’s significance have evaporated. Come December 31, the AFC will dissolve its coalition with the PNC and then the AFC will become a footnote in Guyanese history.

After December 31, 2022, where can the researcher find the significance of the AFC? After December 31, the Guyanese people will see what Aubrey Norton is made of. The AFC says it will sit in the House separately with its nine members.

To award nine seats to the AFC based on the results of the 2020 election results will be one of the largest caricatures in Guyanese history. Nine seats are equivalent to 45, 000 votes. There is absolutely no argument from a genius in political theory that can justify nine seats for the AFC based on voting patterns in 2020. The PPP released its statements of poll (SOPs) during the election rigging and any researcher can peruse them. Where did the votes for the AFC come from after researching those SOPs?

They did not come from areas where the AFC secured its support in 2011 and 2015. The SOPs for Region 2, 3 4, 5 and 6 showed that Indian folks voted for the PPP. It was only in Region 4 that small opposition parties, except the Amerindian Party, led by Lenox Shuman got their votes.

The 2020 election result is very interesting in terms of the small parties and what they received from which Region. What it revealed is a complete devastation of the AFC. It appears that votes that should have gone to the AFC went to the smaller parties.

Shuman’s Justice and Liberty Party (LJP) appealed to Amerindians. Yet the second highest number of votes for the LJP came from Region 4 where Amerindians are not concentrated. For example in Region 7 where there are substantial numbers, LJP got 884. In Region 4, it got 755. Those were not entirely from the Amerindians. ANUG in Region 4 got 1246, its highest for the 10 regions. The Citizen Initiative in Region 4 got 466, its highest for the 10 regions. People’s Republican Party got 401, its highest for the 10 regions. In all the regions where the bulk of Indians can be found, the PPP did well. In all the Regions where African can be found, the PNC did well.

What the voting patterns for 2020 showed was that a majority of both Africans and Indians gave their ballots to the PPP and PNC. None of the smaller parties came close to getting the required 5000 for a parliamentary seat.

We do not know from looking at the SOPs if African Guyanese split their votes between the PNC and AFC. But the Indians did not divide their votes among other contestants; they voted for the PPP. I would say looking at the results Region by Region, those who did not favour the PPP or PNC voted for small parties. It meant that people dismissed the AFC.

To give the AFC nine seats has to be a complete political joke. Look at the election results map and tell me where those 45, 000 votes came from. If the PNC allows the AFC to sit in the House with nine members then the PNC is conceding that 45, 000 African Guyanese voted for the AFC thus denting the strength of the PNC.

Whether the AFC gets the nine members or nothing at all, Guyana has seen the complete erosion of the significance of the AFC and its leaders. Gaskin is gone. Trotman is gone. Nagamootoo is gone. The AFC and its leaders should be the last people to talk about who have significance in this country.

My prediction is the contest in 2025 is going to severely damage the prospects of third parties. The electorate is in no mood to trust third parties after how the AFC performed between 2015 and 2020 and its deportment from August 2020 to the current time.

What is interesting to see in 2025 is how the AFC is going to fare compared with other third parties. If there is anything I am willing to bet an enormous sum on is that I feel other small parties are going to do much better than the AFC in 2025 if the AFC contest. My prediction is that the AFC will be dissolved before the next general elections. So much for significance.

(The views expressed in this articles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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The AFC will be dissolved before the next general elections

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