(DEMWAVES.COM): Cautiously optimistic that a coalition of opposition political parties could win Guyana’s next general election, the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) has read the “riot act” that a struggle for shared governance would be waged on the streets if the incumbent party wins again.
Addressing a poorly attended public meeting at Beterverwagting (BV) village, East Coast Demerara on Saturday evening, ACDA’s executive member, Tacuma Ogunseye signaled to Western nations, United Nations and the Organisation of American States (OAS) that the upcoming elections would be a “game-changer” win or lose.
“If we win, we sharing the government with them but we also have to tell them that if we lose, we are going to fight and bring Guyana to a halt until we have a national government in which the representatives of African people and the combined opposition is part of parliament; Comrades, we are announcing the riot act,” he said.
Ogunseye said ACDA expects that the predominantly African-Guyanese dominated security forces would take the side of protesters to secure shared governance, national reconciliation and political compromise from the PPP.
“Once the African people rise up in their great numbers, I dare the army to take the side of the PPP and against Africans. Our sons and daughters would not do that,” he said.
Ogunseye said his organisation has been telling the main opposition Peoples National Congress Reform (PNCR) that the time has come to shift the political equation through massive street protests in villages countrywide.
“Come elections night when the results come out, Africans must have a share in the government, there must be a national government or there will be no Guyana,” he added.
He welcomed the PNCR’s announcement that if the coalition wins the election, it would introduce shared governance but he noted that the big question remained what would the PNCR or the coalition do if it loses.
He observed that PNCR presidential candidate, David G ranger eventually bowed to internal pressure to support coalition politics and shared governance. That, he said, was in stark contrast to mouthing only about that party winning the election on the internal presidential candidate campaign trail.
“Eventually, with internal pressures from the party and external pressures, Comrade Granger seems to be a fast learner and he has retreated and come back to the party position and he has now embraced shared governance and coalition politics,” said Ogunseye. The PNCR, Working Peoples Alliance (WPA), Guyana Action Party (GAP) and National Front Alliance (NFA) are in the coming weeks expected to launch the coalition.  The Alliance For Change (AFC) has repeatedly ruled out a pre-electoral alliance that involves the PNCR.
ACDA, for several years now, has been pushing for shared governance as the vehicle to end what it says are African political and economic marginalization, discrimination and exploitation by the mainly East Indian-backed Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration. Government has been rejecting those criticisms and has been calling on its detractors to lodge complaints with the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC). The legality of the ERC has been questioned by some opposition parties.

The ACDA executive member welcomed the decision by PNCR leader, Robert Corbin to step away from the presidential race and democratize the process for deciding on a candidate who has turned out to be Granger.
While Ogunseye was hopeful that the PNCR, in combination with other parties and civil society organisations and individuals would pose a real electoral threat to the PPP, he was not entirely confident of victory.
“We believe that a grand coalition makes the possibility of defeating the PPP more possible but we in ACDA cannot stand to our people and say if they have a joint coalition, come Election Day the PPP will be defeated and the coalition will come to power. If we said that to you, we will be dishonest and we will be treacherous,” he said.
Pointing out that the Peoples National Congress (PNC) has never won an election and had remained in power through rigged elections, Ogunseye noted that the Afro-Guyanese community does not have enough votes to win power electorally.
Ogunseye blamed the Desmond Hoyte-led administration for yielding to free and fair elections without first using the PNCR’s then parliamentary majority to push through constitutional reforms for shared governance. At the same time, he credited Hoyte with eventually buying-in to the concept of shared governance.
He predicted that the PPP would likely win the presidency because there are 15 percent more East Indians, the party controls state resources and is injecting funds into the Amerindian communities to compensate for some East Indian apathy.
“In any elections, unless there is a significant rebellion in the Indian community politically, that the PPP has a greater chance to win those elections based upon Indian voting patterns, Indian cultural solidarity and Africans don’t have the numbers, intimidation and funding from drug-lords,” said Ogunseye, also an executive member of the WPA. The PPP has vehemently denied having links with drug lords.
The ACDA official said that the international community’s seven to 10 percent allowance for rigging- not independently verified by demwaves.com- meant a lot to African Guyanese as far as parliamentary control by the PPP was concerned.
ACDA has said that the winner-take-all political system inherited from the British and has delivered nothing for the Africans in this country and very little for Guyana since independence from Britain in 1966.
He blamed the PNCR for back-peddling on its pledge to boycott the 2006 general election if the voters’ list was not sanitized because the AFC had decided to contest the polls. PNCR leader, Robert Corbin had, back then, explained on television that contesting the polls was necessary to protect his party’s political space.
General and regional elections are likely to be held any time after August 2011.
(Story reprinted here, courtesy of ‘demwaves.com’, with full approval from its host Mr. Dennis Chabrol)