Elections 2025… Lesson 3 – incumbency advantage

Sep 09, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

---

Kaieteur News – Say incumbency advantage, and it had the PPP Government written all over it. So said the EU, so say I. For the record, this is a postmortem of pre-September 2025, and not of the new PPP Government, which has the first 100 days as honeymoon, a personal Xmas gift.

When I first heard “incumbency advantage” I ran for cover. The first thought that surfaced, believe it or not, was from childhood, as in that fairytale titled Jack and the Beanstalk. Guyana has a lot of the fairytale about it, with oil standing out, and how well this country has done with it, well, that is another story, one that is not so much of a fable. In Guyana, the fairytales somehow always end up upside down.

There was no giantkiller, electorally speaking, which is the basis for that beauty from the EU about “incumbency advantage.” The ruling party wiped the slate clean of any competition, when it made the widest, deepest, strongest use of the advantage of having its hands on all of the levers of government. If only half of the levers of power were in its hands, the incumbents still had an unassailable lead, a commanding presence. And that’s what the incumbents projected.

It was good to hear the foreign delegation(s) having their say, reinforcing what Guyanese already knew. Despite the guarded and stilted choice of words, the messages still rang true. He who controls the bat and ball and wicket (maybe even the umpires) gets the most runs on the scoreboard, is declared the victor. Consider the following, which is now as old and boring as PNC rigging and GECOM juggling while dancing (on its head, no less). The broadest range of State assets commandeered and deployed to the advantage of the incumbents. The State media apparatus, one that is as long as an octopus, and as thick as that cloud of ink that it releases for self-protection, was utilized to the maximum first to deny political opponents some breathing space for their messages, and then to overpower them. It may not be the World Wrestling Entertainment complex, but I am sure that Guyanese have no difficulty getting the EU (and my own) drift.

The more things change in this country, the more they stay the same. That’s no blasted philosophy, that is the regular history of Guyana. I recall as a youngster, how one LFS Burnham took control of the national media machinery and made it work for him. Some of its more skilled exponents are still around, and one would be shocked to discover where they are perched in plain sight. Remember a program called Action Line? Well, a hundred years later, under a new set of incumbents, there is Fright Line and Spite Line. If the late, great, Dave Martins was still around (God rest him up there with Chopin and Beethoven) he would have said Madline.

But that is what the good folk from Europe had to put on the table under the banner of “incumbency advantage.” Five hundred years after Christopher Columbus, the Europeans are still at it, through new voyages of discovery. Incumbency Advantage is the latest flagship leading the charge along the Caribbean Sea and down the Amazon tributaries. They see national institutions now so bent out of shape by the incumbents, that they bear a close resemblance to the leaning Tower of Pisa. They behold a national network consisting of a combination of public and private assets that is dedicated to maintaining the status quo, while engaging in a long, circular, and drawn-out process of pretending at neutrality and independence. Whoever in Guyana never heard of the private sector, or thought of it in a dark light, had better book a date with a psychiatrist, or a neurologist, or some holy man or woman in this town. The problem with the holy men and women in Guyana is that they are unholier than me, which takes some doing. It means that they are really, terribly, incurably bad.

In considering the EU’s “incumbency advantage”, I am scratching around for any, even one, incumbency disadvantage. I have bad news for Guyanese, I couldn’t put my fingers on a single incumbency disadvantage, including the disputes over access to information, which once again emphasized the North Korean grip that is wrapped around the necks of all Guyanese. Look at what’s happening right at this minute. Who is the one extolling the virtues of the incumbents? What does that say, when the layers of the onions are removed? Permit me to rush to the rescue, and extending a damp cloth. Don’t cry for me. I am still where I am, have always been. I label that individual incumbency inspirations. Try it sometime, fellow Guyanese. It is chicken soup for the soul, though slightly cold.

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

---

• advantage, elections 2025, GHK Lall, incumbency, PPP Government

---