THREE WEEKS from today will mark five years since Guyana’s last parliamentary and presidential elections, and the fourth consecutive five-year electoral triumph of the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic. It was the first such electoral feat in the history of Guyana’s multiparty parliamentary politics, since the previous 24 years of consecutive rule by the People’s National Congress were based on documented massively rigged elections. In addition, that is, to the infamous national referendum of July 10, 1978 to unilaterally change the country’s Constitution that laid the ‘foundation’ for years of illegal governance and contempt for the Rule of Law.
Constitutionally, a new general election must be held not later than three months after this coming August 28. At present, by virtue of new parliamentary-approved arrangements, an extended period of registration of voters is taking place.
It was revealing to learn last week that more than five thousand (5,000) new voters have already been registered with the re-opening of claims and objections to the original list officially released by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). This could only be good news for ALL parties planning to contest the coming poll, since no one could be sure of how these new voters will cast their ballots.
What is surprising is that having initially opposed the reopening of claims and objections to the official GECOM-released register of voters, the parliamentary opposition PNCR and Alliance for Change (AFC) have refused to support a government motion for the National Assembly to work through the current August recess in order to complete unfinished business prior to the dissolution of Parliament for the coming presidential and parliamentary elections.
Given their awareness of the governing party’s parliamentary majority, it is puzzling why the PNCR and AFC would have opposed the motion to continue working during the August recess, only to face possible public ridicule for not wanting to participate in the parliament’s business and convey the impression of shirking their responsibilities.

Unique?
Off-hand, I cannot recall such behaviour by a parliamentary opposition in any other CARICOM state in the midst of final arrangements for new elections. It seems unique and could hardly prove advantageous for either the PNCR or AFC. They may well have given the governing party a free hand in legislative enactments — without interventions — and with eyes glued to dissolution of Parliament and subsequent announcement of the election date.
The political surprises at this stage range from the virtual public absence from the AFC’s election activities by its former leader and unsuccessful presidential candidate, Raphael Trotman, particularly in relation to any meaningful support to the party’s current leader and presidential candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan.  Has he, too, gone politically sour on his own party?
On the part of the incumbent PPP/C, perhaps the more significant surprise, given its years in controlling State power, would be its failure to indicate by now at least potential running mates for the already declared presidential hopeful, Donald Ramotar.
Currently, speculations point to differences on whether the choice should be a woman (perhaps Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues?), or from among a trio embedded within the party’s rank and ministerial structure that include Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud.   
Much focus will inevitably be on the roles to be played by outgoing President Bharrat Jagdeo, who is constitutionally debarred from contesting more than two five-year terms. Of course, in the absence, for the first time for a general election in the party’s history, of either its patriarch (Cheddi Jagan) or matriarch (Janet Jagan), President Jagdeo could be expected to remain quite the dominant personality and a key strategist for the electioneering battle.
If there remains uncertainties about the leadership structure of the PPP for the coming elections, the scenario seems all the more difficult to assess when it comes to the main opposition PNCR.

APNU factor
For a start, now that its chosen presidential candidate, former GDF Brigadier David Granger, has been influential in the formation of what has emerged as A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), serious questions are being raised about the future role of the PNCR itself for the coming elections.  
While current parliamentary Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin continues to function as the PNCR leader, Granger — who won the presidential candidate prize by a margin of merely 15 votes from former Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge — is seemingly experiencing difficulties in the formation of a leadership structure for APNU, which, without the PNCR, is merely a grouping of small parties sadly lacking in popular support and legitimacy.  
The fact that the promised leadership structure could not have been announced at its recent formal inauguration is perhaps a good example of the problems yet to be resolved by APNU, if it really hopes to be so registered to contest the coming elections, for there cannot be both a contesting PNCR and also APNU.
A general election in Guyana in which not just the names of Cheddi and Janet Jagan and Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte are absent, but also the PNCR is not officially a contestant, is simply most challenging to contemplate.
How will Corbin, who is not expected to be a parliamentary contestant, campaign for APNU and explain his own diminished role as PNCR leader? And who will be Granger’s running mate from the collection of small parties, since the AFC has made quite clear its opposition to being part of APNU?
If not someone from, say, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), then the only credible choice as a running mate for Granger may eventually be the candidate he had defeated by just 15 votes at the PNCR’s special congress — Greenidge.
But Greenidge belongs to the PNCR, and this would conflict with the expedient ‘partnership’ ploy of introducing APNU as primary challenger to the PPPC for State power at the coming presidential and parliamentary elections.
Consequently, it seems that some quite exciting political fun days are ahead for Guyana’s 2011 elections. So, keep tuned. Fun, after all, is to be preferred to conflict.