MAKING wild unsubstantiated allegations about the voters list, the minority opposition, AFC, the junior partner of the APNU or PNC-led coalition, has announced that it will not contest the March 2023 Local Government Elections.

Is “issues” with the list the real reason why the AFC will not enter into the fray? The public thinks, and the evidence shows otherwise. And, isn’t it that the APNU+AFC ‘combo’ is in for a political trashing at the polls that is the real reason why it does not wish to contest the elections?

The AFC betrayed its constituents since 2015, and was punished by voters in subsequent elections. It stands to be defeated again come 2023.

The evidence shows that the AFC did very poorly when it last contested elections in 2018 on its own. The APNU ditched it. The AFC contested on its own, but was accommodated by the APNU, which mostly stood down in constituencies where its partner contested. And yet the AFC did badly, pulling a measly 4 per cent of the total votes.

Prior to 2018, the APNU+AFC alliance did poorly at the 2016 Local Government Elections. The then Opposition PPP/C resoundingly won both Local Government Elections as well as the General Elections that followed in 2020.

It is not accidental that a majority of the voters has been gravitating towards the PPP/C. Since 2015, the APNU and AFC ‘combo’ has been losing ground to the PPP/C, because of its poor performance in government.

Voters have not forgotten that the APNU+AFC closed down sugar estates and terminated the services of thousands of workers. The now ruling PPP/C is on course to winning a large majority, if not all, of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs).

The AFC offers a lame excuse for standing down from the 2023 elections. The voters list for the 2023 elections is not much different from the ones used in 2015, which was won by the ‘Coalition’, and the ones used in 2016 and 2018. The election law mandates that the voters list must be updated at periodic intervals.

The 2023 list has simply been updated with new eligible electors. GECOM has carried out its constitutional mandate, accordingly. Not one issue has been put forth on real problems with the voters list by the opposition parties.

The law allows political parties, organisations, and individuals to scrutinise the list for aberrations or issues; to add names of eligible voters and to remove the deceased. GECOM has acted on the request of parties or other entities to remove the names of the deceased with accompanying death certificates. But GECOM cannot remove the names of registered voters.

The Court ruled, in a challenge a few years ago, that the names of registered voters cannot be removed. And neither can the names of Guyanese living abroad be expunged from the updated list without proof of death.

So, there are no legal issues with the list. Elections are already more than a year late, and, when held come March, it will be 18 months late. GECOM has done its job to hold elections as soon as possible. The AFC has not offered justifiable reason not to contest the overdue election.

Commentators believe that the real reason the AFC does not want to contest the LGEs is its fear that its real strength will be revealed. And that strength of political support will be minimal.

Thus, the party wishes to lie low to avoid revealing its lack of support among the electorate that was wised up to bad governance of the ‘Coalition’ and its attempt to interfere with the 2020 elections. Voters intend to punish the party for supporting electoral fraud.

The now ruling PPP/C has been making gains in the traditional heartland of the PNC. And it crushed the AFC in districts where the AFC did well in earlier elections.

Instead of focusing on non-issues about the voters list, the AFC should seek to rehabilitate its badly tattered image that was obtained from poor governance and of supporting rigging.