A SENIOR AFC leader has rejected PNC’s economic adviser, Elson Low, as the PNC+AFC consensus candidate for the 2025 general election. The pronouncement has not brought a reaction from the AFC, so the analyst must accept that the AFC stands by what the senior executive uttered.
The AFC bigwig said Low does not have the necessary qualities to confront the PPP and went on to add that the opposition must have a candidate who must show pugnacity in dealing with the PNC.
Here is what was said about Low: “While Low seems astute, it’s obvious that the coalition will need a strong and no-nonsense candidate to confront Jagdeo and Ali. If there is to be an acceptable candidate outside of Norton or Hughes, it can only be a Terrence Campbell-type person.”
I have known Aubrey Norton a long time and I think I can plausibly comment on his temperament. After what was said about Low, I think the PNC-AFC coalition for the 2025 election is over. Norton is livid. Maybe his anger would have subsided if the AFC had dissociated itself from what the AFC bigwig mouthed off.

There are three approaches in analysing the anti-Low sentiments of the AFC. First is the arrogance of the AFC. The PNC has 31 seats in a 65-seat Parliament. That is a colossal collection of votes. Of those 31 places, the AFC was assigned nine even though it did not contest the 2020 poll on its own.
If there is an election tomorrow it is highly unlikely that the PNC will lose half of its seats. The PNC will suffer serious election debacles in 2025, but I doubt that the seat losses will be 15. I am prepared to say 10 but not 15.
Compared with the AFC, the PNC is a Goliath. How then can a party that is so large be dictated to by a tiny partner whose electoral strength is not known and from my analytical angle will not get three seats if it runs on its own?
The PNC knows it; the PPP knows it; the political commentators and the nation know it – the AFC contesting on its own will not survive electorally.

It is pompous and arrogant then for the AFC to say that Norton’s consensus candidacy is not assured, Low as a replacement for Norton is not acceptable but Nigel Hughes or Terrence is eligible. What Nigel Hughes and Terrence got going for them that would make them more suitable than Low?
We come to the second approach. Terrence Campbell was of unknown quantity until two months ago. What political qualities Campbell has manifested to make him a candidate that will confront the PPP aggressively with his no-nonsense methodology?
Where is the aggressive politics of Campbell and where is his no-nonsense methodology? Is the AFC telling the Guyanese nation that the only confrontationist politicians to carry the fight to the PPP are Hughes and Campbell?
The third perspective relates to leadership qualities. Let us repeat what the AFC noted about Low. It says that he lacks aggression and the consensus candidate must be strong. This is an exercise in grammatical obfuscation. Any candidate that wants to argue with the PPP and seek to win the 2025 election must have leadership qualities.

When you enumerate the leadership factors that a presidential hopeful must have then it is almost asinine to suggest that only aggression can make you succeed. In fact, the quality of aggression can be a variable that can undo a presidential candidate.
Guyana’s history is bound up with extremist pugilistic politicians that have caused people to reject them as unsuitable to lead Guyana. How ironic that the AFC can dismiss Low as soft and not strong and pugnacious when Sherod Duncan fits that bill but AFC supporters did not want him to lead them so they chose a Mulatto/Creole wealthy lawyer.

David Hinds, Tacuma Ogunseye and Rickford Burke are extremists that use violent rhetoric but which young African Guyanese will vote for them to run Guyana? If any of those three persons appear as the main speakers at a public meeting outside Bourda market, the only audience would be themselves.
But let us assume that aggression is a quality that the consensus candidate must have, what about other leadership values? Should the consensus candidate not possess a multi-racial persona? Should he not have a personality that assures people that he is not a wild man and that he is tolerant of others who may not be his admirers? I called Low on Monday morning to tell him that the AFC put a jumbie lash on him and to invite him on the Freddie Kissoon Show.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.