The incumbent in Trinidad has lost the election. The losing ruling party has conceded defeat. Now Trinidad has the same ethnic shape like Guyana and the two major parties –UNC and PMN are seen as having a predominant ethnic membership. But UNC won because there was cross-racial voting.
There must be cross-racial voting and that is what happened to make the PMN win two successive elections and for the UNC to win this time. In Guyana, no race group is near 45 percent muchless 51 percent to win power, so there has to be cross-racial balloting for the PNC or the PPP to win.
The UNC won because Africans and Indians thought it was eligible to run Trinidad because it was a credible opposition. We don’t have such a scenario in Guyana. A Huge amount of people is not going to vote for the PNC and the AFC and after their behavior over the tragedy of the 11-year-old girl in

Tuschen. Irfaan Ali is going to clinch a Kamala Bissessar victory, meaning he will get formidable cross- over votes. I will leave that for another column, but for now let us look at the politicization of the tragedy of the 11-year-old and the effects it is likely to have on the election results later this year.
From the time the mystery evolved over the missing 11 year then the announcement of her body, the opposition including the AFC began to politicize the issue to the extent that they got into the heads of the parents and influenced them to reject the government-appointed pathologist.
The President visited the family twice with assurances of state receptivity to their requests whatever and whenever, yet there was never an acknowledgement of this by any of the opposition groups. The narrative was framed and pronounced on especially by PNC parliamentarian Vinceroy Jordan, that the government was not concerned.

The obvious implication of that is political. The obvious implication of that is the use of a tragedy to secure political capital and that has been happening since her death was made public. Nigel Hughes called on people not to loot and destroy people’s property, but there was no mention of an acid attack on school children.

A motley crew issued a statement including Nigel Hughes, David Patterson and a few political parties that no one ever heard about and there was not one word about the acid attack. Then yesterday, the opposition held a press conference at the sight of the child’s death. This was not only a barefaced politicization of the tragedy, but an abuse of a grieving family.

Since Monday’s mayhem, the politicization of the tragedy continues and there is not one word about the acid thrown on school children. The analyst has to find an explanation why this tragedy is being used for political purposes and why desecration of the child’s name is of no concern. I believe two sets of people found the death of Arianna Young a flash point for confronting the government and the girl’s death had no particular importance for them.
The first is the ensemble of opposition groups. The second is insane anti-Indian, anti-PPP civil society organizations. Both of these groups attempted to derail the government a month after it came into being in August 2020. That was the Cotton Tree double homicide, which they blamed on Indian supporters of the PPP.

There is now a continuation of Cotton Tree. These groups see Tuschen as a more useful opportunity that what Cotton Tree presented. We are into an election year. The plan is to milk the girl’s tragedy to weaken the government. I don’t think this is over. They are going to keep fanning the Tuschen flames because they feel it can bring political capital.

Before I go onto the electoral implications of this, I am not convinced that certain elements wanted the post-mortem to be done. Look at the video of the harassment of the White pathologist. The object was to chase him. I think Guyana is going to survive Tuschen as it did in Cotton Tree. The election will reveal that people think these opposition extremists are not fit to govern Guyana.

Kamala Bissessar secured a substantial crossover vote and I think the vulgarization of the Tuschen tragedy will see a repeat in Guyana of what Kamala did in Trinidad. Irfaan Ai is going to secure massive cross-racial voting because just as Trinidadians didn’t think the PMN was eligible to govern, the Guyanese people know that the PNC and AFC are unfit to rule this petro-nation

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.