Dear Editor,
Running for President is serious business. While the two historically dominant parties, the PPP and PNC (later PPP/C and PNCR), have maintained great consistency since the 1950s, few other parties have managed to do the same. The UF were there in the 1960s, but Burnham orchestrated their exit.
The WPA, once a major force, has not functioned as a regular political party. Walter Rodney, notwithstanding, the WPA has had a weird existence with things like a co-leader and with claims that it is not an electoral-type party. Right now it exists in the name of a man who lives in Arizona, with a few locals tagging along.
Others, like the DLM under Paul Tennassee, made some useful contributions but then moved on.
The AFC entered in 2006 and managed to function as a viable entity till now. We may, however, have seen its ignominious exit in this election cycle.
Through all these decades, coalitions have also risen in ‘quick time’ from out of the bowels of the earth, only to be buried even faster and deeper from whence they came.
The latest iteration is the WIN organisation. I hesitate to use the standard label because it has none of the institutional trappings of a conventional political party. WIN is a one-man show that rose up due to specific circumstances involving the ‘Shell’ family and, specifically, Azruddin Mohamed.
WIN has no elected party officers, no established public headquarters, no recognisable secretariat with a staff, no issue area specialists, no policy-making process, and, in fact, no declared policies. To date, many associated with WIN have absconded or have been unceremoniously kicked out. Some, such as “Doggie”, have gone ‘wild’ against their erstwhile paymaster.
Further, unlike any other President ial candidate since the 1950s that is on the ballot, the WIN Presidential candidate, Azruddin Mohamed, is unable to answer basic questions. One would think that even a modest attempt would suffice. But even that seems to be beyond this poor fella, whose only answers to date are “shortly”, “soon”, and very shortly”… Mr Azruddin Mohamed is the only Presidential candidate who is actively sanctioned for matters with criminal implications, going into an election in the history of this country. As to how things will turn out – all I can say is wait, because you will know soon, very soon.
