Dear Editor,
Regarding your Wednesday, November 14, 2018 news article, “Jagdeo claims ‘massive’ wins for PPP/C at local gov’t polls,” I refer readers to a related headline from two years ago, “PPP/C suffered stunning loss in Georgetown,” (SN, March 21, 2016).
The 2016 news article referenced stated, “Despite trumpeting its ‘massive victory’ in Friday’s local government elections, the PPP/C suffered a stunning defeat in Georgetown that raises questions about the party’s strategy and leadership in the most important municipality. The PPP/C only won two seats in the main prize, Georgetown, down from eight seats in 1994.”
Following last Monday’s LGE, PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo boasted of ‘massive wins’, citing the PPP picking up seven seats in the Georgetown City Council (up from two from 2016) and getting 45,000 votes more than APNU (and 113,000 more than AFC). Those 45,000 votes were almost doubled the 24,000 that the PPP got more than the APNU+AFC in 2016.
So, let us, for the sake of discussion, allow Jagdeo his euphoric moment, because it may be all he has to work with for the next two years since the PPP still does not control purse strings in Central Government to dole out money to local government bodies controlled by the PPP. Seven seats at City Hall definitely does not translate into PPP voting power when APNU has 21 seats and the AFC 2.
In a much broader context, the PPP has to recognize that it has always enjoyed a numerical majority over the PNC/APNU when voting is done strictly along racial lines. All that has happened after Cheddi Jagan died was the gradual reduction in voter support for the PPP at national elections, resulting in the PPP losing its parliamentary majority in 2011 and the presidency in 2015.
Some observers cited migration of many Indians as the core reason for the drop in PPP voter support, but others, like me, believe that, apart from migration, voter apathy actually started invading the PPP support base primarily because of the Bharrat Jagdeo factor.
Although the writing was on the wall for the PPP in the 2006 and 2011 national elections, the Coalition only defeated the PPP in 2015 by about 5,000 votes. It was not a mandate, but it was a win, nevertheless. Many PPP supporters, disillusioned by the Jagdeo and Ramotar regimes, literally stayed home instead of casting votes for the PPP. That boycott, along with the inspirational image of a Granger-Nagamootoo ticket, allowed enough voters to take a chance on the Coalition as a way to stop the PPP, which was behaving like a runaway train.
But despite being given the keys to government in 2015, the Coalition proceeded to make a series of unforced errors in the first half of its term in office. Those errors, along with a President who appeared to be either missing in action or reactive for most of the last three years, clearly created conditions conducive for Coalition supporters in 2018 to become like PPP supporters of 2011 and 2015. Voter apathy was taking a huge toll on Guyanese.
Therefore, when we read news accounts of the PPP gaining more popular votes than APNU and the AFC or that APNU won five of ten municipalities or APNU has 21 City Hall seats to the PPP’s 7 seats, we need to delve below the superficiality of those numbers and analyze the more disturbing numbers that reinforce the growing awareness that Guyanese are fed up with the political status quo that is the PPP and PNC. After 50 years of the same old, same old, why should we remain stuck on stupid?
Take the critical Georgetown municipality, for example, of the 119, 374 eligible voters, only 28.3% voted. Imagine this is an APNU stronghold and APNU only garnered 28,436 votes. Worse, after the dismal performance of Mayor Patricia Chase-Green and Town Clerk Royston King the last two years, the Coalition went again with Chase-Green. No wonder over 70% of eligible voters stayed home. It’s as though the Coalition has grown tone deaf and visually challenged to political reality.
How can either the PPP or APNU celebrate ‘wins’ of any adjectival description with such low voter turnouts and not see theirs is a race to the bottom? But don’t just blame the PPP or APNU, because the only power each has is what voters give them.
In America, enough voters gave Donald Trump the Electoral College numbers he needed to clinch the presidency, but over the past two years, it has dawned on Americans that Trump’s support base is about 40% of the country. The 60% has to wake up and wake up fast. Likewise, in Guyana, those afflicted by voter apathy have to wake up and wake up fast and give voice to the need for a third party based on a vision different from what obtained for the last 50 years.
While the ratio of eligible voters to actual voters is a case study on voter apathy, it should actually inspire transformational visionaries to step up and challenge the PPP-PNC status quo. Much the same way that less than 40% of Guyanese cannot be allowed at every election to decide the fate of the other 60%, transformational visionaries in Guyana cannot allow visionless and self-serving leaders to keep Guyana moving at a snail’s pace.
As we drive towards the year 2020, the year of oil and votes, we must see 2020 as more than a year; it should be our hindsight moment, by doing the right thing starting now rather than waiting two years later to see where we went wrong. Again. It’s hard to predict the future, but we can prepare for it. We have a voice and the power of choice.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin