IN 2016, the AFC allotted 75 delegates to represent Georgetown at its congress at Vreed-en-Hoop. At the time of voting at the AFC’s head office on Railway Street, 67 persons turned up to vote for 75 positions. All 67 members were automatically assigned delegate status.

The AFC could not get even 75 persons to be delegates to fill 75 slots in 2016 when it was in power, how and where is it going to get 300 delegates from the corners of Guyana for its 2024 congress, when even when it was in power it was hemorrhaging members.

In the history of modern politics, a trend of attracting large numbers to a political party after it wins power is a well-established reality. In the history of modern politics anywhere in the world, there has been no parallel as to what happened in the AFC in Guyana when it held power between the years 2015-2020.

The AFC formed half of the government in 2015 and as it settled down to govern, the opposite trend took place – instead of attracting numbers it was losing numbers. It has not been documented by any academic, but the research would reveal that important personnel that made the AFC into a reality and facilitated the AFC into power began to leave even in 2015.

Few Guyanese know that the first in the big names to leave the AFC, ironically, after it got power in 2015, was the current mayor of Georgetown, Alfred Mentore. Mr. Mentore is not the kind to go public with his frustrations. He was a serious financial contributor to the AFC, then, his chagrin alienated him from the AFC. Geeta Chandan was yet another big name that chose to settle within APNU rather than AFC after 2015.

I spoke to literally dozens of young people in 2016 who worked with me on the AFC election campaign in 2015, including the daughter of PNC icon, Dr. Ptolemy Reid and when I enquired about their politics, they all were gone. One recurring face was a girl of Amerindian/Portuguese ethnicity, who was more than energetic.

I remembered her so well because she was at every meeting I spoke at up EBD because she came from EBD. About one year after the AFC got into power, I ran into her. She was packing customers’ bags at the cashier counter at Survival Supermarket. I was stunned and when I tell you stunned – my knees wobbled. I asked her what she was doing at Survival. She indicated that she had left the AFC because she couldn’t even talk to the ministers about a job.

This is a small country so I am going to get my information about attendance at the AFC. I doubt the AFC will secure 100 delegates to attend much less 300. Those who attend will be so tiny in numbers that they will go the incestuous route and have acclamations rather than voting. There will be no contest for the hierarchical positions.
Who will be these observers and what roles they occupy in society? Why anyone would want to be an observer at the congress of a political party that is long gone. Here is my prediction leading up to the national and regional elections in 2025. The PNC leadership race will create an implosion in the PNC because the voting will be tainted.

The image of the PNC will be badly tarnished with a school of untenable leaders taking the PNC into the election. These leaders will crave for face-saving formulas. The AFC will be one. The PNC will need the AFC in 2025. The AFC will need the PNC in 2025.

What is going to happen then, is the PNC and AFC are going to go into the 2025 poll as one, hoping to get at least five seats from the PNC. The brutal reality that the AFC has accepted is that it cannot leave the PNC. Here is a part of that super-iconic song, Hotel California that tells of this fate
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
“Relax,” said the night man, “We are programmed to receive
you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”
The AFC became dead meat even when it was feasting at the table of delectable meat of all varieties between 2015 and 2020. Here are a few words again from Hotel California that remind me of the rotting meat the AFC became.

“Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice
And she said, “We are all just prisoners here of our own device”
And in the master’s chambers, they gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast”