Nomination Day 2025 is in the books – PPP affirms its national credentials

Nomination Day 2025 is now in the record books. The PPP, led by the General Secretary, Dr Bharat Jagdeo, and Presidential and Prime Ministerial candidates Dr Irfaan Ali and Brigadier Mark Philips, marched from Freedom House to the Yumana Yana carrying with them what they described as the winning list. They marched with thousands of persons, with waving of flags and an electrifying atmosphere. The streets along the way were a truly genuine red tsunami.
In the end, seven political parties presented lists to GECOM, which will verify which lists will be approved by Thursday this week. In contrast to the show of massive strength by the PPP, the Horizon and Star party, which has become a tradition, was represented by its leader alone. This party has, over decades, done the same, and there is no evidence that it has any other member. He submitted a list that had a total of a single candidate, himself. The PNC-led APNU was clearly the next largest group, although the size of the nomination day crowd paled in comparison to the PPP. The Team Mohamed claimed it submitted a list for all ten regions and was supported by the third largest crowd on Nomination Day. But this party continues to think it is an internet game. Although there were about 300 supporters, as proven by drone shots, at the time they were ready to move off from Kitty Square, the Team Mohamed page showed a photoshopped picture of thousands. The AFC was a sad picture, looking already like a defeated bunch. The FGM, led by Ms Amanza Walton-Desir, could only present lists for seven regions.
Monday proved once again that there is only one national party – the PPP. The party’s supporters that marched with a contagious energy that caused political tremors in Georgetown and throughout the country were a diversified crowd, looking like the population of Guyana. People of all ethnicity, religion, gender and age. The party’s list confirmed that the Kitty rally was no fluke. The national top-up list has 27 persons between the ages of 20 and 25. No other political party is represented by such a youthful presence. The party’s list includes almost 40% women. There are persons of all ethnic groups meaningfully represented. There is no token presence of any single group. Clearly, the PPP continues its tradition of valuing its candidates and being proud of its candidates.
In contrast, the other political parties were unable to attract youth to their lists. The ethnic make-up of the lists were largely from one ethnic group. The list of FGM of Amanza Walton-Desir had a makeup of largely female, 67%. This was because it clearly was unable to recruit from a large pool. Its support base is limited, and it had to recruit anyone available. The same can be said of WIN, which clearly also had a limited pool.
GECOM has started the actual election process with an incredibly smooth process. No political party could credibly complain. Indeed, it is commendable that all political parties credited GECOM by agreeing publicly that the process was smooth on nomination day. The media had access to all political parties after they had presented their lists to the GECOM Secretariat, and all commended the process.
The PPP’s Prime Ministerial candidate will be the tested and trusted Mark Philips. The PNC has picked a novice and a person that has had little in terms of track record – Ms Juretha Fernandes, who until recently was a member of the AFC but made a deal with the PNC to join their team. Ms Amanza Walton-Desir named Nigel London as its Prime Ministerial candidate. It is unclear who the PM candidates are for the other parties. Mohamed, however, declared we will all know “very soon”.
In interviewing the leaders of the list or the presidential candidates, the media probed the candidates to speak of their lists and asked about policies. Whether one believes them or not, all leaders claimed they had the winning lists. The leader of WIN, Azruddin Mohamed, evoked much humour among the media corps and the internet crowd. He had no answer to any question, answering all questions with a “soon”, “very soon”, or “shortly”. The party
The PPP has proven beyond a doubt that its national credentials cannot be disputed. The party continues to strengthen its national credentials. The party will compete to win in all ten regions, and there is no evidence that it had any difficulty in recruiting candidates, a phenomenon that appears to be the experience of all the other parties.
The phenomenon of political movement was very apparent on nomination day. The PPP is the major beneficiary in the migration to other political homes. A meaningful group from other parties appear on the PPP lists. This has been a trend that has accelerated since 2023. In particular, young people who grew up in the PNC have moved in droves to the PPP.
The most interesting phenomenon is the betrayal that the PNC and the AFC feel at this time. They had actively collaborated with Azruddin Mohamed to enter the political fray. They had hoped that his presence would weaken traditional strongholds of the PPP. That stronghold, however, has not budged. If anything, that stronghold has become impenetrable. But the plan of the PNC and AFC has backfired, as Azruddin Mohamed has drawn its support around the country from PNC and AFC support bases.
It is for this reason that you can expect a vicious attack coming from the PNC and AFC against WIN and against Mohamed. The PNC and AFC will let loose their attack crews on Mohamed in the next several weeks. This will include the PNC-based media Corp.
Interesting times are before us. But this past weekend – Sunday and Monday – did produce a winner. The PPP, with its Kitty record-breaking rally and with its record-breaking nomination day crowd, is the clear winner.