The Alliance For Change (AFC) will this month end unveil its campaign for the upcoming election and it is expected to bring the change Guyanese yearn for, newly appointed manager and coordinator of the party’s campaign Salaudeen Nausrudeen said yesterday.
Nausrudeen, who is a paid consultant to the party and who heads a public relations, marketing and advertising company in the US, said the campaign would be rolled out on January 29 at the Ocean View International Hotel.
He told reporters during a press conference at the party’s new Fourth Street, Campbellville office that the campaign would be a positive one that educates voters on critical and fundamental issues which inhibit their development and engender ethnic disharmony.
“It would promote and provide a glimpse of a new Guyana that will bring political stability, social harmony and economic prosperity,” he said adding that this will be demonstrated in the party’s campaign through its strategy, plans and promotional material among others.
“The AFC campaign would be a creative one, one that would seek to raise the bar, the level of discussion and the overall tone.”
Meanwhile, according to the consultant, on request by the party he undertook a “careful study and analysis of the political sentiments” and he described what he found as both “alarming and hopeful”.
“Firstly alarming, alarming because I found widespread hopelessness and disenchantment among all Guyanese especially youths, women and the business community,” he said adding that it is nothing new but rather a continuation of the trend from 2006.
He said in 2006 a large section of the populace did not vote and voter turnout was “the lowest in more than 13 years. “Many of the reasons and circumstances why Guyanese were disenchanted remain the same today. This condition may have even gotten worse based on what I found.” However, he said the situation is hopeful because people from all backgrounds want change and would be looking for change in the upcoming election. The consultant said he met women, labourers and business persons across the divide and they all told him the same thing that Guyana has to be changed.
“This desire for change resulted in five seats in the National Assembly for the AFC at the last elections, that is dramatic and must be credited in the context of the last 45 years of rigid racial voting pattern which has created much disenchantment today.” He said he is confident that many voters in this election will join those in 2006 and vote for the AFC. Nausrudeen said from what he has heard by speaking to people in the various regions he is confident that the populace is serious about change. “I think there are more people who are very interested in shifting their voting pattern to a more issues-based elections,” Nausrudeen said.
