September 2 – the morning after

Sep 02, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Rather than call this the morning after September 1, I think that it is better to title it Elections 2025 -the first postmortem.  So how did Guyanese do?  Again, it may be more meaningful to question what did eligible voters do?

The insistent word that hovered over this season’s election environment was that there are only eligible voters.  In the spirit of elections, let’s all agree to disagree quietly and peacefully, and move on.  Don’t know about others, but as said here, it is done here.

Here is the first consideration.  After all the columns, commentaries, stats, graphs, tables, charts, from men who know to those who fall under the classification of conmen, what did Guyanese do on Monday, September 1?  After all the narratives from naysayers aka noisemakers, and the great men and women in the service of Guyana, how did voters conduct themselves electorally, in the voting pit, with that fateful ballot paper staring unblinkingly, maybe even accusatorily, right back at them?  Did they comport themselves soberly and in the manner of a visionary, one that’s concerned about individual and family destiny?

Speaking for myself, the hope was that it was a referendum on the disposition of oil money, and not dealt with as a test of leadership fidelity and tribal loyalty.  My antenna is going furiously.  Oil money fell out of favor and political loyalty took over.  There isn’t a single Guyanese alive or dead, who does know the identity of the twin to political loyalty.  To call a spade a spade, did E-Day decline to that old standard of Ethnic-Day?  My short paper is: yes, it did.  If I’m on the right track, and I would prefer not to be, then what should have been a referendum on what happened to the oil money, who got oil money by the donkey cart full (in US dollars, what else?), and what is really going to occur with incoming oil money in the next five years, all collapsed into an irreversible coma.

Here is the second spot of thinking.  Elections all over are an opportunity for the people to hold the feet of their political leaders and ministers and legislators to the fire.  Did Guyanese voters make the best use of that opportunity?  To send a message.  To look at themselves in the mirror and find that they could still do that, and still feel good about themselves.  Here is why.  Because they can then look at their children and elderly dependents and say in all honesty to them that a sacrifice was made for them, and that justice was done for them.  Once again, the early warning signals are flashing (no colors, please) at high intensity.  My brutal assessment is that most Guyanese have either stopped looking directly into their mirrors, or threw them away, or hung a black veil over them that they kept.  Short and sweet: Guyanese don’t want to look at themselves anymore.  For fear that there’s nothing that is positive that will come back from that exercise.  Consciences may be shredded in the towns and villages of this country, but they still possess the lingering power to haunt their owners.

My last slice of the scalpel to this first Election 2025 postmortem is the essence of the unscientific, due to having so much of the unprecedented and unexpected about it.  In Guyana, supporters have a tendency to gloat in the sunlight of elections victory with a chant: ‘is we turn now! Is we turn now!’  This time around, jilted and disappointed voters have the opportunity and the power to turn the tables on the abusers of their freely given trust, those who turned their backs on the longstanding loyalties of their own voting base.  The rank-and file voter has stood firm over the years, and through thick and thin.  He and she now had the opportunity and power for a little of what I will call the Guyanese political version of Montezuma’s revenge.  Having been promised much before and then cast aside, the little people of Guyana had the moment before them to deliver a kick to those who running back to them.  Whether they did or didn’t, will be known shortly.  My instincts are telling me that they didn’t.  Foreign voters had no such incentive.  But Guyanese did have all that power in their hands to be agents of influence in their own destinies.  They had the power.  But like always, when all the chips were on the line, Guyanese took the easy way out.  They did not have the will.  I open my stall and I make my call.  Take it or leave it.  Postmortems number two and three are taking shape.  Here’s a sneak preview: Champagne dawn or tequila sunrise.

(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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• elections 2025, eligible voters., GHK Lall, postmortem

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