H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Local Govt Elections - a referendum 2025

H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Local Govt Elections – a referendum 2025

Jun 14, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – Though Local Government Elections (LGE) results are still incomplete, some positions can be taken. The PNC did surprisingly well, while the PPP failed to impress. Frankly, I had concluded the opposite since the PPP had so much in its favour, while the PNC was hobbled by so many weaknesses. No matter how VP Jagdeo may spin about ‘inroads’ and progress, in the final analysis, it didn’t do squat, for all the PPP had going for it.

GHK Lall

The PPP had limitless money; the PNC counted pennies. The PPP had machinery and unity; the PNC suffered from its internals, disadvantaged by its narrowed focus. The PPP went everywhere; the PNC stuck to strongholds. The PPP campaigned with a full house; the PNC was alone, with its main partner missing. The PPP, as incumbent, controlled plentiful resources, with the PNC lagging far behind.

Yet, despite low turnouts, PNC supporters came out, made their votes count. The fact that turnouts were low in proven PPP bastions also emphasize that there are many in the party’s fold, who are disgruntled, disenchanted, even disillusioned. There is also the fact that the PNC made some progress in a couple of known PPP places. What I have warned about repeatedly has come to past. Citizens see through brother Jagdeo’s verbal smokescreens, his distortions about clean governance, and his palpable contortions with this resource patrimonies. Indeed, it is not only PNC followers who are having it hard; PPP supporters are feeling biting pinches. I think that Opposition Leader Norton must be given full credit for his strategy (people and palms on the ground), his focus (areas of strength), and his quiet persistence (organize, mobilize) that is surprisingly triumphant. I congratulate him.

Crossovers were trounced, abundant cash only moved some voters. PPP leadership hustles (chicken, T-shirts, cook-up rice, music and gyrating), and nuanced pressures were mostly met with rejection. Notwithstanding low turnout, LGE 2023 now stands as a referendum for Elections 2025. Bottomline: LGE results are an expression of Guyanese voter outrage; both from who came out, and those who didn’t.

Linden stayed with the PNC, the birthplace of Corbin and Norton. New Amsterdam has some pushbacks. Mahdia is reportedly a tie. But conspicuously, some PPP communities leaned towards the PNC. While the PPP has been visible and active, the PNC’s LGE campaign has been subdued -resource deficits, primarily dogged leadership tactics. What was hostile territory before, the PPP made its presence felt, delivered its messages. The PNC pushed stoically ahead in its limited spheres.

It would be interesting, revealing, how the PPP Government reacts to those places that disappointed. Would those voters that turned their backs on the many thrilling appeals be punished for their stubborn loyalty to the PNC? Would their towns and communities be strangled of money, the oxygen of governmental operations? After all the time and money spent, all the grand speeches made, and all the lavish attention piled by some of the top PPP political performers in PNC fortresses, to come up short will leave bitter tastes. It could also introduce still more political leadership retaliations on citizens and constituencies.

Georgetown is now a test case. Will the PPP cash squeezes continue? Will the circumventing of mayor and council intensify? Will there be a city of two governing apparatuses, one with money doing its own thing (which is not working), and the other without funds, unable to do anything? And, will the residents of Georgetown (and other still standing PNC strongholds) be lashed by PPP wrath for taking its money, for walking back on promises, for not listening?

I call from now what is feared. Though LGE was smooth, there is unreadiness to project that the national elections will be of the same tone and temperature. Too much involved, too much to lose, too much possible. It is worth a fight, if only to be at the table of decision-making. Second, after all the PPP leadership has proudly pointed to-multiethnic composition, spending record, and cross-sectional appeal – and with only creep and crawl resulting, then I assert that rebuffing occurred. Some soul searching is vital for the PPP: more money or more inequity; while the PNC has momentum, and what is sure to inspire its agitated and restless base.

Checkout the PNC. It was limited to its own strongholds, limited by funds, and limited by its lesser presence in nontraditional voting areas, but managed. This is key to hopes of electoral progress that may lurk for the PNC come 2025. There are swelling numbers of non-customary PNC voters, who take serious objection to many of PPP practices. Sow seeds now; build on LGE results. Guyanese voters are unhappy.

Now brace for some closing kicks. With few exceptions, Guyanese voters stuck to their own: Indians for PPP, Africans for PNC. This looks bleak for the 2025 election climate. Worse still, it houses all the poisons that are killing us slowly, contributing to the continuing impoverishment of the richest people in the world. Despite all the cash spent by the PPP, despite reduced PNC efforts, the blueprint for 2025 is now apparent: the PPP has wasted time and opportunity. The PNC has a chance.

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