NOMINATION DAY on Tuesday for the scheduled May 11 general elections can now be expected to take place amid ongoing speculations over the quality of manifestos to be released by the respective contesting parties.
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.
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 or 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.