In a chapter of the seventh edition of the book, “Oil Dorado: Guyana’s Black Gold” titled, “Oil and the oxymoronic 2025 election,” I wrote the following: “It will generate enormous interest but in a contradictory way, it will be perhaps the most uninteresting general elections in Guyana’s history.”

Looking back at that article that was done last November, I think the words quoted above need a relook. I would take back the word, “uninteresting” but with an explanatory note. I used the word because I believed then as I do now that Irfaan Ali will win a second term and Guyanese know that, and so we all know what the results will be.
But it will not be an uninteresting contest because the curiosity is rising about how well he will do. Will he achieve a two/third majority? Can he secure a landslide? I have written the next line

several times and I am writing it again. I don’t think Guyana had a clue about this man when he was sworn in on August 2020. Ali has become a unique leader in the Caribbean context.
I had an exchange with Leonard Craig last night (Monday) on the Freddie Kissoon Show in which I argued that at the end of his second term, Ali will eclipse Burnham and Jagan in Guyana; Manley, the father and Manley, the son in Jamaica and Bustamante in Jamaica; Errol Barrow in Barbados; Eric Williams in Trinidad and George Price in Belize.

Craig did not disagree, but he feels that Ali will have to do some unique transformational politics if he is to go beyond those huge names cited above. I think Ali will. The groundwork for the transformation was laid in his first term. So I do think in that context that it will be an exciting election.
I will now expand on the title of this column. If there is anything I have learnt from 57 years in politics is that there is a huge chasm between what the urban elites say and what the masses of people in a country think.

If you take what all the nationally known newspapers and television stations said and wrote about the American election, then Ms. Harris would have won a landslide against Mr. Trump.
The urban elites are full of themselves. They believe they have the hand on the pulse and they know how the population feels. If you read the Stabroek News and listen and read how the civil

society bodies in this country think, you would have thought that the PPP would have lost the 2023 local government elections.
It was an historic election in which the PPP carved out significant gains among PNC constituencies and among African Guyanese.

The 2025 election is going to prove a lot of things including the abysmal lack of influence these urban elites including the Stabroek News have among the population. Included will be the demise of the Mulatto/Creole party, the AFC. Do you think the masses see the AFC as a party that can take Guyana into the future?

Long before the election date was announced, you heard names of people and organisations and you hear how good they will do and how people will vote for them. But when the rubber hits the road, it is a different story altogether.

I move around Georgetown. I am at Bourda Market, the supermarkets, the gasoline stations, the National Park, the Georgetown seawall. You hear about some nebulous entity named Team Mohamed. You hear about Glenn Lall.

When the campaign begins and the revelations, shocking news, skeleton in the cupboards, double standards, hypocrisy, extravagant wealth and other stories hit the air, then, the men are separated from the boys. Then the voting public’s eyes are open. Then the country sees in full view who is who.

You don’t win votes because you are rich. You are naïve to think that your wealth will entice people to vote for you because you live in a castle and have 20 cars.

You don’t win votes because each day you go on Tik Tok and entertain people, and the low life ones and stupid ones gravitate to your entertainment. You don’t win votes by cussing down other races and other peoples’ religion. You don’t win votes by telling a nation that what it sees in front of its eyes did not exist.

I am talking about politicians denying that hooligans and thugs attacked people, loot their properties then burn their properties. So the race is on. The campaign in earnest will begin shortly and this nation will see for itself who is electable and who should never be elected.

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.