THERE is a possibility that the PPP could win a two/thirds majority in the 2025 elections because the nature of the opposition in general, in Guyana, is so chaotic, shambolic and hypocritical that their deportment simply turns people off.

Their style, pronouncements, demagoguery and hypocrisy are so grating to the nerves that you are forced to ask yourself – are these the people that want my vote?

We will look at the PNC’s recent rally at Parade Ground and some positions of ANUG in forthcoming columns but for now let’s focus on the expanding caricature that the AFC became in 2016. You always wonder in life how humans can openly degrade themselves and why they do it. The AFC, in December 2022, pulled out of its coalition with the PNC.

What that meant was a separation of legality from politics. The AFC informed the nation that legally there cannot be an AFC party in Parliament. The legal name of the party that contested the election and won seats was APNU+AFC. So the exit from the APNU’s house could not have led to an AFC parliamentary party. For the purpose of parliament then the AFC has to remain under the umbrella –APNU+AFC.

Politically, the AFC became distinct from the PNC. In politics then there was no longer an entity named APNU+AFC. Then the bizarre happened – legality and politics were in fact not separated. There is still a political organisation named APNU+AFC. That entity held a rally about two weeks ago at Parade Ground. So is there a separate AFC?

How does one explain this confusion? Let’s quote the AFC’s leader, Khemraj Ramjattan in an interview with the Chronicle as carried by that paper on June 4 last year: “In June (2022), we made a decision, it was not a talk, it was a decision at the National Conference in accordance with the Accord that on December 31 we are going to withdraw out of the Accord and independently do things, just like prior to the Accord being signed and we were two independent parties,”

What happened from June 2022 to make AFC change its mind and continue in joint political activities with the PNC? There is only one explanation the analyst can offer. There are no other reasons but one fundamental motive for the AFC still being in partnership with the PNC. There is absolutely no space in Guyana’s politics for the AFC. The AFC became dead meat long before June 2022.

We will never know the reason why in June the AFC thought it could go it alone. But it did so and made the announcement to leave. In 2023, reality hit the AFC. With increasing popularity of President Ali and the small party ANUG still around, and maybe other third parties of 2020 will resuscitate themselves, the AFC decided that Guyana no longer has space for it and it will remain with the PNC thus its presence at the Parade Ground rally.

Having decided to stick with the PNC, the AFC will enter the 2025 poll as APNU+AFC. Here is where things are going to become nightmarish for the AFC. Each big wig in the AFC, particularly Cathy Hughes, Khemraj Ramjattan, Juretha Fernandez and Sherod Duncan are looking to go into Parliament in 2025 (David Patterson says he is leaving politics after the life of the current parliament ends). But there is only place for one of them and that person will be Khemraj Ramjattan for reason of ethnic exigency.

The PNC is only going to give the AFC one seat. If the WPA was more important and had bigger names and it only got one seat in 2015, and none in 2020, why the AFC ego-trippers think they will get more than one? They will not get more than one because the entire PNC leadership is agreed on that.

The PNC will not get the 31 seats it got in 2020. If it loses five seats, there is going to be intense competition among PNC stalwarts for parliamentary places with little consideration being given to the feelings of the AFC. Because of the ethnic reality, Duncan and Hughes will lose out. Ramjattan will get a seat because he is the AFC leader and the Indian factor will come into play.

The possibility does exist for Juretha Fernandes to get a seat for reason of gender and ethnicity. But the PNC does not suffer from a lack of women leaders among its own ranks and Fernandes does not have a constituency in Bartica where she is from. The AFC became dead meat in 2016. It is long dead and gone.