HISTORY has shown, here and elsewhere, that whenever a warring party has its back squarely against the wall and cannot retreat but doesn’t want to surrender, its only last chance is to create a diversion. Same with opposition political parties that cannot win free and fair elections.

The current major opposition party and its sacrificial lambs have decades of accumulated experience in the art of stealing elections, first exemplified in 1964 when the People’s National Congress (PNC) and the United Force (UF) conspired and colluded to prevent the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) from taking office, although it had won the popular vote.

Fifty-six years later, the PNC-led APNU+AFC coalition did the very same thing in 2020, this time actually refusing to leave office after losing the elections.

Three years later, the opposition coalition is today collapsing under heavy internal and external pressure, first with the AFC announcing its divorce and now melting from heat from within, the PNC leader now being accused by his closest peers of chasing good people from the party, yet crying when they leave.

The PNC/APNU leader is also being accused— again from within — of presiding over the party’s demise, seen in such desperate moves such as senior party figures verbally insulting Indo-Guyanese members for daring to condemn racist attacks by their party’s coalition allies.

Similarly, the few but increasing number of Afro Guyanese turning their backs on the party are being insulted in similar racist and even canine terms, including and especially those who’ve taken the hard but principled decision to exercise their democratic right to switch sides.

This week’s indecent verbal assault on a Chronicle journalist (for only doing her job) by a very senior APNU/PNC functionary, while not unexpected, is another indication that with their backs against the wall across Guyana, the major minority parties are today simply overly desperate, having run out of all hope, even unable to show support anywhere on Nomination Day for the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGEs).

Once upon a time (not too long ago), it was unthinkable to even dream the PPP (or PPP/CIVIC) could ever win a local government poll in the city of Georgetown. But look at the ruling alliance’s candidates list for LGEs 2023 and it’s quite clear, without any doubt, that even if the APNU+AFC and others were to contest, together or alone, none would get anywhere near to mobilising support, far less winning.

The seismic shifts in Guyana’s political and economic fortunes since the PPP/C returned to office in 2020 – after the APNU+AFC coalition was legally forced to stop stealing the election results (again) – have resulted in bigger shifts of the tectonic plates that once supported their popular base.

In such a situation, desperation (like indecent assault) will be accompanied by false flags raised over concocted or manufactured actions, usually exceeding bounds of decency, custom or tradition – as they did in 2020 by claiming and swearing to have Statements of Poll proving the PPP/C stole the election (in opposition), but which they’ve never been able to produce, whether in court or to the related Commission of Inquiry.

It’s now for all Guyanese voters who want to keep elections free and fair to remain eternally vigilant, on all our “Ps and Qs,” as we beware of the false flags being flown by the desperate elements in the opposition’s leadership, who also happen to most, although – luckily for Guyana – not all.

The buzzwords for voters’ attitudes to the opposition between now and Election Day must, therefore, include “Constant Vigilance” and “Mistrust” of the usual suspects!