A minority govt. of a peculiar type

Sep 18, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Elections! The people get an opportunity to separate racehorses from carthorses.  I prefer the identification of champions and the dismissal of bums.  Following the September 1 polls, the PPP is riding the crests of success.  Like many crests, there is foam in the mixture, towering to the heights, then flattening out, and last tumbling to the depths.  How to think of the PPP’s success at the recent polls in a different light, what has not been said, as yet?  Then, what are the implications, where could this lead?  There is a teaching tool for the leaders of the PPP, and I urge them to take to heart, or else cats are waiting to eat their dinner later.

The numbers are in and the numbers don’t lie.  PPP on top, and PPP all the way to State House and consolidation of oil power.  Then I look at those numbers again, and I see the unsaid.  The PPP is a minority government.  Of sorts.  Of a peculiar kind.  However, this is measured, counted, extrapolated, induced, and reduced.  For sure, it is first among equals, and by the longest of long heads.  Of that let there be neither denial nor contention.  But what else do the election numbers put in front of all Guyanese, beginning with Excellency Ali and Vice President Jagdeo, chief strategist and chief national wiseman?  What do those numbers, with a focus specifically on the PPP drill into the head of one and all?

I use the PPP Government number of 757,000 eligible voters, of which 242,000 voted for the PPP.  Congratulations are still in order for a majority government that won a minority of the eligible votes.  When two out three eligible votes (not votes cast) were not for the winning PPP, what message is being conveyed by the voters to all pols, and what message to the rest of Guyana?  I assert again that the incumbents won and by a square margin.  That should be the end of the story.  However, if I am Dr. Jagdeo, who doesn’t miss a beat, garnering only one out of three eligible votes has to be a cause of concern.  Grave concern, as practitioners in diplomatic circles solemnly pronounce, when matters are rapidly approaching a flashpoint.

After all the budgetary provisions for the benefit of the people, this is the best that September 1 produced: 242,000 Xs.  After subsidies here, and increases over there, and a cash grant all over, and this was what came out of September 1 (one out of three), then there is some heavy lifting ahead.  From the people’s perspective-people who stuck with the old opposition, or attached to the new opposition, or simply stayed put in their homes-much more had to be done.  What was done didn’t matter that much, barely made a dent in the circumstances of those who held their noses and turned their faces when that decisive Monday came cruising long.  It was smooth, wasn’t it?

Five more years might look like a long time, lull into a sense of complacency, exaggerated confidence.  Be careful, ladies and gents of the PPP.  If that many could have stayed away in 2025, imagine how many more could decide to take matters into their own hands and follow suit later.  Not a criticism, in the least; simply a little exhortation on message embedded, and lesson absorbed.  I would recommend to the new government that it does more than absorb.  It should learn.  It must decide that whatever fell short in the last go round has to be discarded, and some fresh new deals developed with the people in mind.  I am being considerate to the extent of being over tactful.  The people, the people, the people.  The people that stayed home.  The people that rejected overtures.  The people that sat on their hands and voted with invisible ink.  I hear that Dr. Jagdeo is a smart fellow.  No arguments.  He, therefore, ought to be right where I am; at least, this one time.  The election day numbers are loaded, and they are fraught with possibilities.  One of them is peril.

It is increased speed ahead in the old ways.  Or overhaul of more than procurement practices.  This calls for an overhaul of the mind, and I owe that duty to Drs. Ali and Jagdeo.  This is another lease on political life.  There are some new people, bustling with energy, knocking at the door, and nipping at the heels.  Learn something.  Do something.  Start some new things that inspire Guyanese across the spectrum.  Then there can be resting on laurels with the assurance of having done the best, and ready for any test.  Whatever the test, there is the confidence that it can be weathered authoritatively, overpoweringly.  Those are my two cents; it’s the most I can afford.

(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, GHK Lall, hard truths, minority govt., PPP

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