COMMENTARY LGE 2023 signal major changes in the political landscape in Guyana

By Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

Local Government Elections 2023 (LGE 2023) have come, the elections are gone, we know the results, but the meaning of these elections will now transform forever elections in Guyana. The PPP won these elections; the PNC took major blows in these elections, the small parties recognized that they are out of their league. But LGE 2023 was also a referendum on a number of issues – President Ali’s ONE GUYANA push, PPP’s General Secretary’s continued onslaught against ethnic and racial voting and his push to strengthen the PPP’s multi-ethnic and multi-racial credentials and on the PNC’s leadership issues. These are not diverse issues, these issues have overarching long-term implications for Guyana’s future and are all connected in one way or another to the “1953” movement when our people stood as one, standing up against the British as ONE PEOPLE.

The landslide (some call it the LGE 2023 Wipeout) victory of the PPP, winning a minimum of 66 Local Authority Areas (LAAs) out of 80, while winning 7 of the 10 municipalities and 59 of the 70 NDCs sent a powerful signal that the people of Guyana embrace President Ali’s ONE GUYANA movement. No matter what and how the naysayers “spin” the results of LGE 2023, this is a massive victory for the PPP. The PPP wiped out the opposition in all the PPP’s traditional strongholds, beat them in several of the PNC’s traditional strongholds and made massive gains in many other PNC’s traditional strongholds. The PNC made no gains anywhere in the country.

It is true that they held on to the Georgetown, Linden and New Amsterdam. But they barely scraped by in New Amsterdam, where they won a constituency by a bare 4 votes. Were it not for those 4 votes, the seat allocation in New Amsterdam would have been 7 to 7. The PPP gained a minimum of 4 seats in Georgetown and from a single seat, the PPP moved to 2 in Linden. These are gains for the PPP; the PNC lost ground in municipalities just one year ago people would have thought impossible.

It is disappointing, therefore, to see how biased the newspapers were. Stabroek News headline was “Jagdeo claims massive victory in LGE”. Kaieteur News front page in a little corner stated PPP claims victory in 66 LAAs”. Both were patently misrepresenting the truth. The truth was that the PPP had a massive victory.

At the same time, the results, including that the PPP won more than 82% of the LAAs and almost 80% of all seats available in the LAAs, show that Guyana’s Vice President and the PPP’s General Secretary, Bharat Jagdeo, is succeeding by leaps and bounds into strengthening the PPP’s multi-racial and multi-ethnic credentials. In its 73 years of existence, the PPP has never given up or reduce its resolve to remain as Guyana’s only multi-ethnic political party, one that never has attempted to use race to maintain a base. Bharat Jagdeo made this the most important mission for the PPP. LGE 2023 confirmed that BJ is winning in this quest and, therefore, the PPP and Guyana are winning.

But the results of LGE 2023 also was a referendum on the racial politics of Aubrey Norton and the

PNC. In their strongholds, like Georgetown, Linden, New Amsterdam, Bartica, Mahdia, Fyrish, and NDCs, such as those that include Mocha/Archadia, Den Amstel, Victoria, Golden Grove, Manchester and Lancaster, Dartmouth and many others, where the PPP for decades could not hope to attract more than single digit support, the PPP succeeded in having dozens and hundreds of voters. The people sent a clear message to the hate-mongers and to the race-baiting leaders of the PNC that ethnic-based and racial-based messaging will not suffice in keeping the PNC from descending into a small political party and then into oblivion, unless it changes. The PNC wears like an albatross its race-based politics and its DNA for rigging elections. LGE 2023 sends a chilling message to the PNC leadership – the time has come for a serious introspection, for changing course, for embracing the ONE GUYANA message. The narcissism of the present PNC leaders might not allow them to see the clear and unambiguous signal that the people sent in LGE 2023.

There are some political events that represent milestone events, that shape how the future looks. Local Government Elections 2023 is one of them. Politics in Guyana which after 1953 reflected the racial polarization in our country, which dominated the way the vast, vast majority of Guyanese people voted is probably going to play a significantly less role in the future. This does not mean that ethnic and racial considerations will disappear forever when the Guyanese people make their political choices. But the weight that ethnicity and race play in how people and why people make choices in elections will reduce significantly. This has major implications for development and major implications for President Ali’s ONE GUYANA promise.

The PPP is clearly the only national party in Guyana today. The LGE 2023 results reflect this. But Nomination Day for the June 12 LGE had already underlined that when the party was able to field candidates for all the 610 LGE constituencies. The other major political party, the PNC, could only run as a socalled coalition (APNU) and could only field candidates in 55 of the 80 Local Government Areas (LAAs), in 260 constituencies. A political party that sees it self as a national party not being able to field candidates in about 55% of the constituencies in an election raises major question about its capacity to function as a national political party.

Since 1957, no matter how questionable, the PNC was able to represent itself as one of two national parties, with reach in every region of Guyana. In LGE 2023 this has changed. The PPP competed everywhere, in all regions, in all constituencies, within constituencies dominated by Indo-Guyanese, Afro-Guyanese, Amerindians and within constituencies where other ethnic and racial groups have an influence. The PNC was only able to focus its attention on its “strongholds” which invariably are dominated by Afro-Guyanese. Parties like the AFC, WPA, ANUG, the URP etc. are small political parties that became non-existent or became even more diminutive.

The LGE 2023 results have shown that the PPP has grown in its national appeal, attracting support ev- erywhere, in all 610 constituencies. In a few of these constituencies, the PPP gained small amount of support. In others, the PPP gained significant cross-over support. Clearly, the strongest support base of the PNC has been in municipalities where the population are dominated by Afro-Guyanese. In Georgetown, Linden, New Amsterdam, Bartica, and Mahdia, the PNC was unchallengeable in past elections, either national or local. LGE 2023 completely removed this shield for the PNC.

In constituencies dominated by Afro-Guyanese in the city and in towns controlled by the PNC from the party’s formation or from the formation of the town, the PPP gained support. In at least two towns, Bartica and Mahdia, the ethnic and racial cross-over votes were enough to give the PPP control of the councils. While the PNC was able to hold on to the City of Georgetown, the PPP gained more seats, increase its overall percentage of votes and give signal that the PNC’s absolute domination in Georgetown is over. Mahdia is now a PPP-town. Bartica now is a PPP town. New Amsterdam will be an 8-6 town council, with the PPP increasing its number of councillors by 100% and its voting strength by about 140%. This is the story in the NDCs too.

People decided in LGE 2023 that ethnic and racial voting is not in their welfare, not in the interest of their families and communities. This is the trap that the PNC found itself in. It continues to exist on the basis that the party is an Afro-Guyanese party, that the party is for and of the Afro-Guyanese people. It has always based its existence this way. This is in complete contrast to the PPP which has always insisted that it is not an Indo-Guyanese party, that it will not be based on promoting only the interests of the Indo-Guyanese people. This does not mean that the party was oblivious of the reality that the Indo-Guyanese people found comfort in the PPP. After decades, the party which has been the home of the majority of Indo-Guyanese and Amerindians, is now finding itself the home also of a growing number of Afro-Guyanese and people of other ethnic and racial groups. The PNC which also had been the comfort zone of the business class has now alienated this group which is finding a comfort zone in the PPP.

By breaking ethnic and racial barriers, the PPP has finally succeeded in its founder leaders’ mission – people must consider their political options on the basis of trust, ideas, accountability and transparency and competence. The PPP entered the LGE 2023, with these as their major promises to people and on their track-record. The PNC, for unfathomable reasons, decided to push its ethic and racial politics. It deemed the PPP’s efforts to have a discourse and build trust with the Afro-Guyanese populations as an intrusion into the personal space of the PNC and on stealing its God-given “property”. Thus, Afro-Guyanese who decided to support the PPP were deemed “soup-drinkers and “houseslaves”. This insult to the Afro-Guyanese people was not left unpunished.

Politics will never be the same in Guyana. President Ali and the PPP’s General Secretary, Bharat Jagdeo, have brought alive 1953 and have shown that ONE GUYANA is a real thing.