NOTHING was going right for the total school of opposition entities, and by total, I mean all of them— those in parliament and those who plan to contest the elections and anti-government civil society activists.

Then came Adriana Younge. The police made one crucial mistake and didn’t handle the PR with even a modicum of plausibility. And the political vultures had the fruits of ambrosia dropped onto their laps.

A panicked family chose to see murder rather than an accidental drowning. You can’t blame parents for losing their rationality when they lose a child in controversial circumstances. The tragedy of a little girl was removed into the background. The family kept the emotions running high, and the total opposition ensemble was reborn.

The ensemble took the tragedy out of the Adriana Younge incident and inserted politics into it. For weeks, a theme was viciously carved out on the landscape of opposition politics: the girl was murdered in a ritual of sacrifice. Day after day, this theme played out with cruel intentions. But floating on the surface of this Mephistophelian brew was the politics of Macbethian failure.

The government resorted to the playbook of the past great generals of history. They made their countermove on the chessboard of politics. They gave the family and the political allies of Macbeth what they wanted – an autopsy and a forensic investigation.

Then the denouncement came. The ensemble secured their own post-mortem. The Adriana Younge tragedy withered in the hand of the ensemble as a dying rose that has gone forever.

What was to be the golden goose turned out to be a chalice of faked diamonds. The Adriana Younge tragedy ran its political course and had no more brew in the Macbethian pot. The ensemble had to look for more fertile fields. They found it in a strange, ghoulish, eerie character named Azruddin Mohamed.

People never learn and they only do when it is much too late to stop the self-destruction. The Adriana Younge requiem has been replaced by the Azruddin song. In this song, the President of Guyana is alleged to have committed a bureaucratic sin. So Guyana is in the second phase of the ensemble’s desperate search for electoral survival.

Since it is a game of electoral survival, then, just as the Adriana Younge tragedy was milked of every ounce of the substance in the calf, so the song of Azruddin will be played non-stop. But it is beginning to look that the song has been sung out.

As you listen to the song, you are not seeing the smoking gun in the lyrics. What did the President do from looking at the Azruddin paper that jeopardises his credibility?

The irony is that when you look at the Azruddin trademark, it is the owner on the signature himself that becomes the sinner. This tale is going to end up like the faded rose in the Adriana Younge saga. When the thing about Azruddin Mohamed hits the fan, the ensemble will look for a new orchestra to play its election symphony.

We are in the early, very early stage in the election campaign. Skeletons in the cupboards are still neatly stacked up inside, but when the doors are opened and the jumbles are released, the reverberations are going to drown Mr. Mohamed and the ensemble.

From my experience (which is long and wide), I know that elections are decided days before not months before the final ballot is cast. The ensemble is blasting the Azruddin song but when that melody turns into the tune the cow died from, it will be too late to look for another golden goose.

As night follows day, there will be a frenetic search for another theme long before September 1. And so the curiosity around Guyana will be: what will it be and where will it come from. Actually there was an episode that was to replace the Adriana Younge tragedy before the Azruddin lyrics hit the airwaves and that was supposed to be the new rally cry.

It was GECOM’s unpreparedness to hold general elections. This meant no election should be held until GECOM can get its performance right. But Aubrey Norton killed that goose before it can lay its eggs. The PNC boss said that the PNC is ready to fight on September 1, 2025.

The ensemble thought it lucky when the Azruddin envelope was pushed under its door. So there we are at the moment. The nation waits to see after Adriana Younge and Azruddin Mohamed which pot the witches will brew before September 1. Fortunately in 21st Guyana, people are not easily fooled.

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.