TODAY, one of the leading contestants at the upcoming national and regional elections, the APNU+AFC Coalition, launches its campaign. In what promises to be a grand affair, the coalition of six parties would reintroduce itself to the electorate and, perhaps, lay before them the platform on which it intends to campaign. As we have editorialised before, these elections are expected to be the most important in the country’s post-colonial history. It comes on the heels of First Oil, a development that could transform Guyana into a First World country. It, therefore, matters who governs at this critical juncture.

The Coalition has been in office these past four and a half years—a testing period in our country’s independence journey. It took office after the now opposition PPP had held power for almost twenty-three uninterrupted years. As happens with governments which monopolise power for long periods, the regime developed a life of its own and came to believe that its hold on the government was divinely ordained. Consequently, it took the country to the edge of disaster.

The lines that separated government from the State and the State from the criminal underground were completely obliterated, or what Professor Clive Thomas dubbed “the crimilisation of the State.” By the time the Coalition took office in May 2015, the very foundations of the State and society had been shaken to its core. People had lost confidence in government as a custodian of the overarching values that bind the nation together. The nation had lost its way as ethnic dominance and authoritarianism ruled supreme.

It took the unprecedented collective efforts of a diverse group of parties and leadership to sway a majority of the electorate to put a halt to the dysfunction. The process began in 2011 with the formation of the A Partnership for National Unity which comprised the People’s National Congress (PNC), the National Front Alliance (NFA), the Guyana Action Party (GAP), the Justice for All Party (JFAP) and the Working People’s Alliance (WPA). This formation quickly caught the imagination of enough voters and breathed new life into the alienated electorate. In the meantime, the newly formed Alliance for Change (AFC) had made its presence felt by making significant inroads into the traditional support base of the PPP.

The convergence of these two developments led to the wresting of the parliamentary majority from the PPP in 2011, which in turn reduced the PPP to a minority government. Acting in unison, the AFC and APNU curtailed the PPP’s dominance that eventually caused fresh elections to be held earlier than expected. This time, the APNU and the AFC entered into a pre-election arrangement that saw them contesting the 2015 elections as a single entity called the Coalition. The Coalition won the election and the rest is history.

The same Coalition now returns to the electorate asking for a second term. Ultimately, it is the voters who will make the final decision. But many observers have made the case for a second term. They have cited among other things the level of stability that has characterized the country’s political life. Some have pointed to the respect for civil liberties and the reduction of official corruption. Still others have argued with much justification that President Granger has re-legitimized the presidency in the eyes of the wider electorate,
So, as the supporters of the Coalition assemble at the Jubilee Park today, there would be much to celebrate. It is the signal that the race is well and truly on. The country would be listening keenly to the platform declarations even as some celebrate. Will the Coalition ultimately triumph? The chances seem very good, but they still have to make their case to those who are the final judges.