NOMINATIONS Day was, apart from the real intent and practical agenda, a symbolic muscle-flexing of the various political parties, some of which had maxed their resources of manpower to display their strength to their respective constituencies.

Incumbent President of the PPP/C Government and former PPP General Secretary, Mr. Donald Ramotar, is again the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s presidential nominee. He heads the PPP/C List of Candidates for the upcoming General and Regional Elections on 11th May this year.

Jubilant, upbeat mood of party supporters
Nomination Day yesterday in downtown Georgetown saw supporters of the contesting political parties wending their way from their various starting points to City Hall amid colourful displays of party and national flags.

The processions entertained the crowds lining the streets en route to City Hall, where party leaders tendered their lists of candidates to GECOM, with their upbeat mood and spirited dancing to upbeat jingles, while waving party and national flags and other symbols unique to their respective parties and chanting slogans.
The contingents – first of the TUF, then the PPP/C, followed by the APNU/AFC coalition, and in between the smaller parties were reflective of the democracy and absolute freedom to exercise one’s rights and choices in Guyana – post elections of October 1992.

The strength, unity and energy of the PPP/C contingent was no contrived arrangement of convenience, but a genuine bonding of Guyanese across every divide in what outgoing Prime Minister Samuel Hinds described in 2011 as a united Guyanese group, and which then President Bharrat Jagdeo called ‘a PPP family of Guyanese in action.’
This is a Cheddi Jagan dream come true, because the unity that party has created in the national construct was evident from the eclectic blend of races that marched with jubilation, led by the leaders of a partnership that has endured for over two decades – the PPP/Civic.

Ever since the split of the PPP and the consequential rift that divided the Guyanese nation because of manipulation by material and profit-driven external and power-hungry internal forces, Dr. Jagan’s dream was to re-unite the Guyanese people in the spirit of 1953, when all Guyanese people joined forces in a common struggle for freedom from colonial domination.

That dream of Cheddi’s continues to be nurtured under the banner of the party that he helmed since its creation in 1950 to the time of his demise, and which was bolstered with the inclusion of the Civic component headed by Prime Minister Sam Hinds since 1992. Today, another former General-Secretary of the PPP is poised once again, after his truncated first term in office, to assume the leadership of the nation.
Donald Ramotar is not seen as an individual, but as representative of all that the Party encapsulates in its vision for the nation, according to party leaders.

Speaking to party supporters after the formal tendering of the lists of candidates at the Nomination Day ceremony, Ramotar recalled the hopelessness and apathy that pervaded the country prior to the PPP/C victory in 1992, which the PNC totally destroyed since they took office in 1964.
The PPP is a colour-blind party that only recognises people – differentiating between no community in its development paradigm, according to the leaders, and President Ramotar urged the Party’s supporters to take nothing for granted, because the PPP/C needs a massive win to ensure that the progress continues with an intensified momentum and is not stymied anymore through gerrymandering in the National Assembly.

He drew brief parallels of a then and now scenario, where hope was not only restored but the development took Guyana on an upward trajectory where the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, described Guyana as CARICOM’S only shining star, because this country is the most dynamic in the Region in terms of social development and economic growth, having already achieved several of the United Nations’ MDGs.

Clinton Urling – will he be the next Mayor of Georgetown?

President Ramotar has said that the list of candidates include ‘surprises.’

Prior to Nominations Day he had indicated that “The list of candidates will reflect our national diversity. We have new names on the list, many professional people, working people, and many youths.”

Well, all the ‘surprises’, beginning with Elisabeth Harper as Prime Ministerial candidate, are pleasant inclusions to a PPP/C list.
Notable among the new faces was young and dynamic entrepreneur, Clinton Urling, who is slated to become the next PPP/C candidate to replace the now archaic Hammie Green as Mayor of Georgetown, according to reliable sources from within the PPP.

Massive Crowd
The massive crowd at the recent rally launching the PPP/C’s elections campaign led to the expectation that the Party’s contingent marching yesterday to City Hall from its headquarters at Freedom House in Robb Street would be equally large and exuberant; and indeed it was.
The jubilation displayed, especially by its youthful members, was indicative of a victory forecast and it is hard to imagine that a Government formed by this party of Dr. Cheddi Jagan would once more be forced to endure the anti-developmental stale-mate and impasses driven by a vengeful Opposition collective, which never displayed any concern for the embattled Guyanese nation, even their own constituencies as they vindictively and obdurately flexed their muscles – in and out of Parliament, to impede every transformative developmental project crafted by the Government.

Lawlessness once again from APNU/AFC supporters and members
The APNU supporters’ behaviour on Nominations Day of 2011 was a reflection of their traditional conduct pre-and post elections. They stormed the guarded gates of City Hall and broke down the barriers then poured en masse into the compound. This was in direct contrast to the orderly behaviour of the PPP/C contingent that had preceded that party to City Hall.
Again yesterday, impeded by heavy security from gaining access to the compound through the gates, the coalition’s supporters tried to breach entry into the compound through the fencing, damaging the hedge in the process.
As the age-old iron grillwork in the fencing threatened to give way one member of the city’s constabulary attempted to bring order to the chaos and was assaulted as a female member of the coalition grabbed his genitals and squeezed, forcing him to retreat.
The prehistoric relic of City Hall and former strongarm of the PNC, was observed at one point to be gyrating against a post on the stairway. The vulgar display only stopped when an official of GECOM practically pulled him away from his romantic encounter with the unyielding wood of the stairway post.
Nomination Day 2015 heralds much promise for the nation. However, in whatever way events unfold prior to elections of 2015 and subsequent to the declaration of the winner, Guyanese could only pray that the losers will be gracious in defeat, as happened in Nigeria, and let the nation breathe. All the parties made promises to the nation; and paramount among those promises is the furtherance of the country’s development and the enhancement of the people’s welfare. The collective Opposition has a past history of breaking promises and plunging this nation into devastation. May an ethos of honesty and integrity be a new paradigm governing APNU/PNC/AFC political dramatics in Guyana so that the nation can at last exhale in safety and peace.