GUYANA votes in 43 days in its General and Regional Elections. The elections are a clear two-party (PPP/C and APNU-AFC coalition) race. Billed in some quarters as the mother of all elections, which for me means to deepen democratic gains and continue to move Guyana forward. Bringing out the vote then becomes decisive, where literally every vote counts and where each party will do its utmost to bring out all its supporters to the polls.

Guyana’s last election was on November 28, 2011, when the PPP/C won the majority of votes, but without a majority in Parliament. The Opposition APNU-AFC held a one-seat parliamentary majority, and was the de facto coalition since 2011. Over the last three years, motivated and sweetened through its slim parliamentary majority, APNU-AFC coalition exerted enormous efforts to control and shape the PPP/C Government’s agenda and ultimately to become the de facto government, but failed outrightly in these mean ambitious endeavours. And amid the experience of recurring failures to realise its parliamentary goals, the coalition’s sights were then reprogrammed to remove the PPP/C Government from office. But who would bell the cat?
During that period, the AFC, the minority component of the de facto coalition with APNU, seized the opportunity to initiate action toward achieving the prized goal of ousting the government; and at the same time, hoping that through this initiative, it could enhance its political standing with APNU and the Guyanese people. And so the AFC’s one-line no-confidence motion against the PPP/C Government saw the light of day, which reads thus: “Be it resolved that this National Assembly has no confidence in the Government.”
But what aspects of the PPP/C Government is the no-confidence against? Here is a small sample of some developmental gains in 2013: the growth rate of Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased to 5.2% in 2013 from 4.8% in 2012; per capita GDP at US$3,496.3; net international reserves at the Bank of Guyana at US$751.2; inflation at 0.9%; infant mortality rate at 12.9 per 1,000 live births; almost 100% immunization against DPT, MMR, yellow fever, polio, TB (BCG); about 10 physicians per 10,000 population; about 15 nurses per 10,000 population; about 25 hospital beds per 10,000 population; 1.4% prevalence rate for HIV and AIDS for adults aged 15-49; case detection rate of Tuberculosis at 78 per 100,000 persons.
In addition, the economy in 1992 was US$300 million, now it is over US$3 billion; aggregate bank deposits are now up 15-fold, with low interest rates; and debt services today utilise less than 5% of revenue. And over the last three years, APNU-AFC cut $89 billion from the budget, inclusive of $4 billion for Amerindian development and $200 million for the University of Guyana student loan fund. In 2010, about 90% of the population had access to improved water and about 85% to improved sanitation.

Again, in 1992, about two-thirds of students did not receive regular secondary education as they were placed in secondary departments of primary schools or in community high schools; today, Guyana is in the proximity of universal secondary education. This list of developmental gains, and this is not an exhaustive list, makes nonsense of AFC’s no-confidence motion.

And so, with no substance to the motion except the hunger for personal political power, President Donald Ramotar then prorogued Parliament on November 10, 2014, dissolved it on February 28, 2015, and announced May 11, 2015 as the election date. It is remarkable that the coming elections represent the third time that the PPP as the Government has had to relinquish office before the statutory due date for elections, the first time was in the 1960s, the second occasion related to the Herdmanston Accord in 2001, and now in 2015.
It should be noted, however, that the likelihood of the 10th Parliament, which arose from the 2011 elections, would have completed its full tenure was never on the cards, as the Opposition APNU-AFC coalition rejected practically everything the PPP/C Government tabled, gradually plotting its removal from office long before the 2016 due date for the next elections. And constant rejection of the Government’s business brought an alarming spate of gridlock to the point where APNU-AFC became the ‘Coalition Party of No’ and a ‘No-Nothing Coalition Party’.
On its scorecard, the PPP/C commands a considerable electoral advantage. For instance, the PPP/C has never lost General and Regional Elections in Guyana, making for a winnable probability come May 11, 2015; APNU-AFC’s excessive and far-fetched doomsday stories on Guyana do make the PPP/C the best party with the perfect message, a rarity in politics; APNU-AFC coalition’s unusually high deceptive pessimism and gloom about Guyana aid the PPP/C to forge ahead and to remain unstoppable; and there is a view out there that a vote for APNU-AFC coalition is a vote for the PNC because sections of the electorate see the charioteer of the coalition APNU as really the PNC; the PNC’s negative symbolisms and its ‘dictatorship’ track record would resonate with the people.
The no-confidence motion brings to light the true colors of the AFC and APNU, in that both had a de facto coalition since the start of the 10th Parliament with their focus firmly fixed on obstruction, that is, blocking the PPP/C Government’s agenda. The AFC’s no-confidence motion was weak because it failed to specify substantial areas of the PPP/C’s work it cannot support, as a no-confidence motion should focus on concerns with significant implications for moving a country forward; and therefore, the current no-confidence motion was insufficient as a criterion to move Guyana to the polls. The PPP/C Government did not buy it, and so it was not a factor in taking the country to the polls; the PPP/C determined its own terms for the May 11, 2015 elections. In effect, the AFC’s no-confidence motion was unnecessary. But what the no-confidence proposal did, however, is to make the PPP/C’s developmental gains a focal point, and quite rightly so, and in turn, providing an immense electoral advantage to the PPP/C.
By Dr. Prem Misir

On its scorecard, the PPP/C commands a considerable electoral advantage. For instance, the PPP/C has never lost General and Regional Elections in Guyana, making for a winnable probability come May 11, 2015; APNU-AFC’s excessive and far-fetched doomsday stories on Guyana do make the PPP/C the best party with the perfect message, a rarity in politics; APNU-AFC coalition’s unusually high deceptive pessimism and gloom about Guyana aid the PPP/C to forge ahead and to remain unstoppable; and there is a view out there that a vote for APNU-AFC coalition is a vote for the PNC because sections of the electorate see the charioteer of the coalition APNU as really the PNC; the PNC’s negative symbolisms and its ‘dictatorship’ track record would resonate with the people.