There could be no denying — no matter what standard is used — that, politically, the PPP achieved a landscape-changing victory in LGE 2023. Not only did the PPP win 67 of the Local Government areas, but the LGE 2023 results also raise alarming questions relating to the PNC’s existence as a major political party. The PNC could not put up a candidate for 57% (346 of the 610) constituencies.
They not only forfeited fully 25 LAAs out of the 80, but they also failed to participate fully in 36 others where they failed to place a candidate in one or more of the available constituencies. They will not control an LAA in six regions – Regions 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9 — and excepting for a small LAA in Region 5 (Hamlet/Chance),the PPP will have councillors sitting in 79 of the 80 LAAs; the PNC, on the other hand, will have no councillor sitting in 29 (36%) LAAs. Moreover, the PPP won at least one constituency in 76 of the LAAs. In contrast, the PNC won at least one constituency in just 39 of the LAAs.
This past week saw PPP leaders attending thank you meetings in Regions 1, 3, 4, and 10. Presumably, such thank-you meetings will continue, as the PPP thanks its supporters in all ten regions. The PPP has good reasons to thank its supporters, both traditional supporters and those who newly have joined the PPP train. The PPP, without a shadow of a doubt, had a resounding victory, and has inspired a kind of massive support that is consequential for the political landscape for a long time to come.
LGE 2023 is the first time since the 1953 general elections — which were based on adult suffrage, allowing every adult, no matter what their social and economic status was, to vote — that our country showed any meaningful dent in ideological and ethnic-based voting. Between 1999 and 2011, President Bharrat Jagdeo pursued a style of governance that inherently challenged ethnic-based voting in Guyana, believing it can be reversed. Now President Ali is carrying the mantle, and finally, in LGE 2023, there is unequivocal evidence that their confidence is justified.
The PPP is not merely celebrating a victory, which under any circumstance is massive, it is taking time to go back to the people, bringing them together in political gatherings that reflect Guyana. The thank you gatherings are deliberate, to establish this point – the PPP has succeeded in bringing the country together as ONE GUYANA. The gatherings are intended to show Guyana and the world that, for the first time since 1953, the PPP has again succeeded in inspiring a national movement that brings people together around issues, and not ideology or ethnic-based politics.
The PNC gathered a few vehicles with music and waving flags as they conducted a few fleeting motorcades in New Amsterdam, on the East Coast of Demerara, in Georgetown, and in Linden days after LGE 2023. While looking comical and confusing to most Guyanese, the motorcade made sense. They had no reason to celebrate. Their internal politics and quarrel right now reflect the fact that LGE 2023 was a terrible and era-changing defeat. The political fallout for the PNC will make news for months and years to come.
The makeup of the PNC will forever change, but its DNA will keep it in the cesspit for a long time, until enough new DNA is injected to change its racially-based politics and its deep obsession with rigged elections.
Despite the motorcades in the so-called celebration, they never said thank you to those who voted for them, in spite of them having to hold their noses in so doing. In several press engagements, the PNC leadership still has not said thank you to those who bucked the trend and still voted for them. The motorcade was really the PNC exhaling, a deep breath of relief. It had reconciled itself to the possibility that New Amsterdam would be lost. Indeed, it now knows that this was its last hurrah in New Amsterdam; that only a miracle would save New Amsterdam; and that, in the 2025 general elections, New Amsterdam is likely to vote PPP. The meek motorcade that lasted a few minutes in New Amsterdam merely was the PNC exhaling relief that it barely held on.
But it had prepared itself for a more severe licking in Georgetown and Linden. Motorcade or not, the PNC knows that the PPP achieved massive inroads in its previously impregnable enclaves in Georgetown and in Linden. LGE 2023 confirmed the penetration the PPP achieved in these communities, where previously the PNC had to do very little to shut out the PPP in elections. That the PPP almost double its seats and voters in Georgetown in LGE 2023 compared to LGE 2018 is testimony to the massive gains. This includes flipping the seats presently occupied by the sitting PNC mayor and deputy mayor.
The same scenario is seen in Linden, where the PPP doubled the number of seats from one to two, and obtained a more-than 500% increase in votes. Indeed, the PPP came close to winning two constituencies, including barely losing out to the PNC veteran Vanessa Kissoon. The PPP also came close to winning Kwakwani.
This devastating defeat for the PNC in LGE 2023 will forever change the political landscape of Guyana.
