Rallies Are Spectacle, Not Substance

Jul 20, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Political rallies are not campaign strategy; they are campaign theatre. They are not about education; they are about excitation. The mistake we make is in assuming that the size of a crowd at a rally is a reliable indicator of electoral support. It is not. Crowds are bused in, promises are shouted out, and the energy is manufactured—like a well-rehearsed stage play where the audience is also part of the cast.

Consider the 2015 elections in Guyana. The PPPC drew massive crowds, far larger than their competitors, yet they lost—narrowly, but lost they did. The lesson? A rally does not equal votes.

The 2023 local government elections reinforced this truth. The PNCR did not rely on grand rallies, yet they held onto key municipalities—Georgetown, Linden, New Amsterdam. Their campaign was lean, targeted, and effective at mobilizing their base. But here’s the catch: holding your base is one thing; expanding it is another. And expansion requires more than just spectacle. It requires persuasion.

Political rallies are, at their core, entertainment. They are designed to make supporters feel powerful, to give them a sense of momentum, to convince them—and the media—that their side is winning before a single vote is cast. The louder the cheers, the brighter the colors, the more it seems inevitable. But inevitability is a trick.

Parties transport supporters from all over to create the illusion of local dominance. A rally in Region Four may feature crowds from Regions Three, Five, and Six. The people waving flags and chanting slogans are not always the people who live there. They are performers in a political drama, extras in a production meant for television cameras and social media clips. The real work—the quiet, unglamorous labor of changing minds—happens elsewhere.

One of the most effective ways to campaign is also the least flashy: door-to-door outreach. It is personal, direct, and allows for real persuasion. But in Guyana, even this has been reduced to a hollow ritual. The PPP, for instance, often sends teams to distribute flyers—printed matter dropped into hands with little explanation, little engagement. The distributors themselves, in many cases, cannot articulate the party’s policies beyond rehearsed slogans. It is campaigning by leaflet, not by conversation.

This is a missed opportunity. A rally stirs emotion, but a genuine house-to-house campaign can change minds. The problem is that changing minds is hard work. It requires listening, not just talking. It requires patience, not just passion. And in an era where politics is increasingly polarized, where tribal loyalties often override policy debates, the incentive to persuade is weaker than the incentive to perform.

Here is the open secret of the next election: the race for first place is already decided. The real contest is for second. And that is where things become fascinating, because there is no clear heir. The traditional opposition forces are fractured, new players are testing the waters, and the electorate is restless. In such an environment, rallies become even more of a show—an attempt to project strength where there may be uncertainty.

But history tells us that rallies do not win elections. Organization does. Discipline does. A clear, compelling message does. The PNCR’s success in local government was not due to raucous gatherings but to a focused, low-budget operation that turned out their base. The PPP’s challenge is not to fill streets with supporters but to convince those beyond their core that they deserve another term. And the smaller parties? Their task is even harder: to prove that they are more than just spoilers, that they can convert rally cheers into real votes.

The danger in overestimating rallies is that it leads to complacency. A party that believes its own hype—that mistakes applause for allegiance—may neglect the harder, quieter work of governance and grassroots engagement. Elections are not won by those who shout the loudest but by those who listen the closest.

In the end, political rallies are like fireworks: dazzling, noisy, and over quickly. The real campaign is the slow burn—the conversations in rum shops, the debates in markets, the quiet decisions made in living rooms. The parties that understand this will thrive. The ones that don’t will keep playing to packed crowds—and wondering why, on election day, the numbers don’t add up.

The stage is set. The audience is waiting. But remember: politics is not a show. It is a count. And the only crowd that matters is the one at the ballot box.

(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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• Guyana Election, Mohamed, Peeping Tom, PPP, rallies, WIN Party

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