I would like to repeat what I wrote in my column last Monday, the day of voting in the 2023 Local Government Elections (LGE). Here is what I observed: “Guyana’s incredibly young population includes African-Guyanese who do not see politics the way their parents and grandparents saw it decades ago. There are many reasons for this, including the age of the internet and more ethnic mixing in schools and tertiary institutions. Secondly, I don’t think young African Guyanese are enamoured with their leaders the way their elders were decades ago. The current crop of African leaders is poor and mediocre….”

The results of the 2023 LGE have proven my analysis right. There has been phenomenal racial crossover vote for the PPP among African people in New Amsterdam, Linden and especially in Georgetown. The sociological importance of the LGE of 2023 is that if the Ali presidency continues its transformational journey, then by the next LGE in 2026 (the next LGE will probably be held after the general poll in December 2025), the PPP could win the Georgetown City Council.

In every major PNC stronghold where African Guyanese predominate, there have been increases in votes for the PPP from the LGE in 2018. In New Amsterdam, the PNC’s 2018 constituencies of 11 have been reduced to eight. The PPP’s has been increased from three to six.
In Georgetown, when the official results are declared, the PPP would have come close to winning City Council. It currently has six councillors. This will go up to about 12. This analyst believes that once Mohamed Irfaan Ali continues with his transformative agenda, the PPP will take City Council in 2026.

What is the most valuable occurrence in the LGE in 2023? Guyana has begun the journey, eventually to becoming a multiracial polity where people vote for issues rather than the ethnic factor. The LGE results in Sophia tell the story about this journey. I live at Turkeyen which is the neighbour of Sophia. I take Sophia main road to get to Georgetown often. Sophia is 99.99 percent African. The PPP had a 528 increase from 2018 in Constituency Four, which is Sophia. In Bartica, where there are no substantial numbers of Indians, the PPP picked up 528 more African votes in 2018.

Before we move on, I would like to inform readers of what I said to David Hinds when he appeared last Friday on the Gildarie-Freddie Kissoon Show. I told him people do not know who Tacuma Ogunseye is. I also told Hinds that if he and Ogunseye go to Charlestown and announce a public meeting, no one would turn up. I know Charlestown. It was always a PNC stronghold. In the LGE 2023, the PPP increased its ballot-intake by 473. I repeat what I told Hinds last Friday evening. He and his preachers of race hate do not speak for African Guyanese. The results of LGE 2023 prove that.
It is important to note as an analyst when you go through the LGE 2023 results, the cross over from African Guyanese are not in single digits. In many cases, they run into the thousands. In Georgetown, Bartica and Linden it was in the thousands. What Guyana has witnessed last Monday is serious multiracial voting which if it continues, will shape Guyana’s sociology in ways that will bear no resemblance to the past.

What were the factors that led to the PPP’s phenomenal performance in LGE 2023? There are several and in my enumeration I do not want to appear disrespectful to the selfless campaigners who contributed to the results. But I will point to two crucial variables. One is Guyana’s income is large enough for people to share in the pie. And I believe ordinary folks feel that they will get a piece of the pie, and some are getting it. In another column, I will expand more on this.
I would say that the politics, perspectives and style of President Ali has significantly contributed to the phenomenon of multiracial voting in the LGE that ended last Monday. People want to see their prime minister or president come to them, ask them what their problems are and give them tangible results.

President Ali has come to be known as the people’s president because he is more in the communities than in his office. He does presidential work in the communities rather than on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive. He cannot lose once he continues on that vehicle. Ali’s incessant visits and his deliveries have contributed directly to the LGE 23 results where people vote for his party even though they do not belong to his ethnicity. More on the LGE 2023 results soon.