YESTERDAY was Nomination Day, which means that the big race has officially kick-started between the various political parties jostling for power in Guyana. 

Amid fanfare and frenzied support from thousands of ecstatic supporters, the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) yesterday submitted what it described as “a winning list” of candidates on the party’s slate at both the General and Regional Elections billed for May 11.
The Opposition alliance, under a united coalition platform of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), also stormed into the elections race yesterday, presenting its nominations to contest the 2015 polls as the main challenger to the incumbent PPP/C.
And of course, there were ‘the usual suspects’ of small parties, a few of which are even labelled as ‘paper parties’ that pop-up around this period known as the ‘silly season’. They add ‘colour’ to the whole affair, running in a race they obviously can’t win, and even while some may say they are somewhat of a ‘nusiance’ to the electoral process, they serve as timely reminders that our country’s democracy is at work and is on firm footing.
It is apt to note that elections season in this country has, in the past, been more characterised by campaigns built on the politics of mudslinging than the politics of progress. As much as politics is made out to be a popularity contest, that is not the case. The whole premise of a democratic political system may be summed up as follows: It is a system which credits the majority of people within a particular society with the collective opinion, information and intuition to decide on whom among them they want to govern the social environment in which they exist, giving them the right to either reaffirm their decision or change their minds periodically.
This key democratic element of socio-political flux means that those who are contesting the political leadership of a country must actually work hard to either retain or gain that leadership. There is no perpetually upheld status quo in which the will and concerns of the people become insubstantial in contrast to the whims and luxuries of an entrenched ruling class. A natural part of any contest is deconstruction of your opponent, even in a non-contact sport like long distance running, for example, you try to break your rival down by asserting your superior athleticism the first chance you get.
Of course, we expect our politicians to point out each other’s sins of omission and commission in the carrying out of their expected duties; that is par for the course in any political contest. But the contest of politics is not only about showing the deficiencies of your opponent, but also the reasons why you are better suited for the job that you both are contesting.
Mudslinging is the easiest and cheapest alternative in democratic politics – you throw as much dirt on your opponent as possible while hoping that the scum he or she throws back at you doesn’t stick.
As in many democracies around the world, at elections time, many politicians fail to realise that what they are contesting is in fact the privilege to serve the people of their country, a privilege afforded them by the electors. The ballot box is seen more as a gateway to power and riches than what it really is, a receptacle for the mass investment of trust and responsibility.
While anyone would agree that you can’t separate politics from the people practising it, what the people in politics are supposed to be representative of are the issues facing their constituencies.

DAY OF RECKONING ON HORIZON
In our Editorial last Sunday, the Chronicle alluded to the fact that the incumbent PPP/C, which is optimistically seeking a successive fifth term in government, has already signalled its preparedness to release its manifesto well ahead of Voting Day. Of much interest is what kind of credible manifesto the PNC/AFC coalition could possibly release within a reasonable time-frame prior to V-Day!
After all, the ‘shambolic’ display of the AFC for the 2011 elections is still being recalled with hilarity. Then it had managed to merely release a few pathetic pages of printed material of “promises” to justify the funds it had received from abroad, particularly from overseas-based Guyanese.
This time around, it is contesting as the junior coalition partner of the PNC. It is, therefore, expected that since they are like peas in a single pod and campaigning from a shared platform, they cannot be at variance in the policies and programmes they plan to pursue as a government.
There lies the rub! For what they really have in common is a shared hatred for the PPP/C; a political hatred that energised them to systematically oppose, for the sake of opposition, a range of major fiscal, social and economic development programmes by the PPP/C Administration. And this, mind you, to the detriment of Guyanese — across the political divide.
In our reckoning, therefore, the political marriage of convenience that has resulted in a painful delivery of the PNC/AFC pre-election anti-PPP/C coalition, seems destined to suffer the consequences on Elections Day.
The Chronicle Editorial also noted that if early assessments offer a reasonable guide, the price to be paid for reckless, opportunistic anti-PPP governance during the 10th Parliament would be forthcoming in the valid ballots of voters on May 11.
They are quite capable of making their own independent assessments of what’s best in Guyana’s national interest, as distinct from what has resulted from a political marriage of convenience in the form of a PNC/AFC “coalition”, with nothing of substance to support hateful political claims.
The day of reckoning is on the horizon. Those who have betrayed fundamental principles to hamper Guyana’s continuing patterns of progress will soon face the verdict – Progress, YES! Political deceit and sabotage, NO!

Mark Ramotar