Easter weekend 2025 has come and gone. President Irfaan Ali and his Cabinet, including VP Bharrat Jagdeo and PM Mark Phillips, went across the country on Good Friday, celebrating one of the holiest days of the year with Christians and non-Christians. The President and cabinet are always engaged and fully participating in every single religious event, no matter which religion. On Easter Sunday, President Ali spent the day with the citizens of Region 9, celebrating with them one of Guyana’s signature tourist events – the Lethem Rodeo. On Easter Monday, the cabinet went across Guyana celebrating the world’s most prominent kite-flying event with the people.
President Ali and the cabinet, as other PPP presidents and cabinets have done, have not only celebrated with the people one of the important religious weekends, but have also sustained the effort to make Easter a tourist event in Guyana. They have continued to work with the organizers of the Lethem Rodeo and the Bartica Regatta and with the kite-flying events across the country to make Easter a signature tourism event for Guyana. They know that building the tourism industry is critical for strengthening Guyana’s economic diversification.
While it was impossible to miss the President, the VP, the PM, and the rest of the cabinet and other senior Government officials as they joined citizens in celebrating Easter around the country, it was equally impossible to see the Opposition around. It would be unfair to demand of the Opposition the same kind of visibility as we saw with President Ali and his cabinet. But one would have thought that the Opposition would seize the opportunity to engage thousands of Guyanese in churches and community events in Lethem, Bartica, the #63 Beach, and other places around Guyana where people gathered. Maybe a few of the leaders were around, but the Opposition as a whole was missing in action (MIA).
Within seven months, Elections 2025 will be upon us in Guyana. Any serious political candidate, any serious political party, must know this. Any serious political party would already be intensely preparing for Elections 2025. If one looks at the PPP, it is impossible to miss the clear message – the PPP is in full campaign mode. The Opposition is still entangled in determining how they would participate in the elections. Just before Easter, they timidly – almost embarrassingly – announced that the PNC and the AFC would part ways and contest Elections 2025 separately. In the same timid breath, however, they made clear they might still get together.
The PPP has actually provided a social media link for citizens to send in their ideas for inclusion in the PPP’s Election 2025 Manifesto. This initiative has drawn commendation from various sources in Guyana, and already citizens have begun to take the opportunity of sending in ideas. While it might be the first time the party is using a digital mode for engaging citizens in the preparation of the manifesto, it is not the first time that the PPP is engaging citizens in consultation prior to preparing its manifesto. In LGE 2023, the PPP held public consultations across Guyana in which citizens were asked to give their ideas, many of which the PPP incorporated into their plans.
For the Opposition, the manifestos might not be important. Two things have become apparent to the citizens of Guyana. First, in both Elections 2015 and 2020, the PNC-led APNU/AFC coalition published manifestos just about one or two weeks before elections. Few people ever saw their manifesto. The second thing to be aware of is that when they got into Government in 2015, they proceeded to ignore the manifesto. They conveniently forgot the promises they made.
The PPP, on the other hand, between August 2, 2020 and the present, has delivered on every single promise made in the Elections 2020 manifesto. The fact that the PPP is already in high gear in putting together a manifesto is a good measure that the PPP is already advanced in its preparations for Elections 2025.
In the meanwhile, the PNC and the AFC have to deal with an obvious migration by some important senior officials, while also dealing with memberships which are not confident that either Aubrey Norton or Nigel Hughes is the best presidential candidate for their respective parties.
Among others with presidential ambition, a newspaper publisher has not been timid in confessing his presidential ambition. In fact, two weekends ago, with thousands flocking to see the President in Region 6, this publisher was out hoping to get some visibility on the ground, recognizing that his picture in his newspaper and his voice on his radio station were not enough. In his delusion, he announced that he would be the next President of Guyana. But he has no party, and the public has no idea who are the people that would run with him.
The same applies to a rich Guyanese citizen who believes that he could go out one or two days a week and hand out charity and that would make him a preferred choice of the people to be the President of Guyana. He, too, has no party , having been rejected by the PNC/AFC.
Elections are about choices that people must make. There might have been a time when people voted without considering who the candidates are and what ideas they have for developing our country. Those days are long gone. We have to go to the people with our ideas, track records, demonstrate they could trust us. Since Elections 2020, the PPP has been among the people. The Opposition, with Elections 2025 staring at them, are still engaged in internal conflicts and with no ideas with which to entice people to their side.
A fundamental point missed by the Opposition is that elections are not about them, elections are about the people. The Opposition is preparing itself for a good electoral thrashing come Elections 2025.
