THE PPP is no longer the target of the PNCR campaign. Two themes are boldly imprinted on the platform of the PNCR’s campaign: whip up apan jhaat (vote for your own) and cuss down Azruddin Mohamed. Now don’t take my word for it. Monitor the PNCR’s election meetings. Race appeal and bad-mouthing Mohamed are the two strategies.

Foreigners and very young people may now know what is meant by “meh ears ringing cause people talking meh name.” Let me explain that local thing that sadly has died out or is dying out. I grew up hearing the older folks saying that their ears are ringing therefore people are talking about them. The ears of PPP have not been ringing for the past two weeks because the PNCR isn’t talking the PPP’s name but rather is talking about Azruddin Mohamed.

Every PNCR meeting is an appeal to race in order to get African Guyanese to embrace apan jhaat. I will give three examples of PNCR meetings in which apan jhaat is being used crazily by the PNCR election bandwagon. Robin Simon in Haslington, Ronald Daniels in Agricola, and Henry Jeffrey in Plaisance.

All three speakers threw away any pretence of political commonsense and called on African Guyanese to vote along racial lines. Before I go further, a word on how the PNCR is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Henry Jeffrey is in his early eighties. He is not even a footnote in Guyana’s politics. No young African Guyanese know who Jeffrey is.

The PNCR put an 80-year-old man to preach apan jhaat at their election outings. Where in the PPP has it resorted to an 80-year-old man to excite PPP constituencies? The PPP’s platform is overflowing with young people. In a country where about 82 per cent of the population is under 50 years of age, the PNCR has become sad and desperate. Where is Jeffrey going to appear next? The PNCR better be careful with Jeffrey because I am not 80 and this August heat is killing me. Now back to why the emphasis is apan jhaat.

The PNCR knows from hundreds of videos that their leaders have seen from WIN’s meetings and campaign rallies that WIN is winning the PNCR’s traditional supporters. I would be a dishonest analyst and a dishonest academic if I did not admit that the Linden rally of WIN was large. Linden has always voted solidly for the PNCR. My analysis tells me that both the PPP and WIN will get votes in Linden that would have gone to the PNCR.

I rather suspect that there has been a war room meeting in Congress Place and the twin strategy that was adumbrated was apan jhaat and anti- Mohamed attacks. The apan jhaat thing has no subtle dimension to it. PNCR speakers are openly telling the crowds to vote for “your race.”

The other side of the coin is – do not vote for WIN, stick with your African politicians. I have belaboured a certain theme on this page; it is that after 2026, Aubrey Noron is gone. He will have to go because the PPP is going to take several seats from him. But there is the possibility that even with a substantial PPP majority, the knives will be slow to come out giving him maybe a year or two.

I met Van-West Charles at the pastry shop earlier this week and he agreed that Norton will have to go after the terrible election showing. But what has not been discussed is that Norton may not survive as long as 2026 if Mohamed secures traditional PNCR votes and takes about three or four seats from the PNCR.

The symbol of a WIN invasion of PNCR constituencies has to be the last ounce of toleration for the current PNCR leadership. No leader can survive if Mohamed takes his votes because Mohamed is the most unacceptable politician Guyana has ever produced. I believe resorting to apan jhaat is too little, too late. The PNCR and AFC created Mohamed to devour the PPP.
It was a terribly insane misdirection. There was no way Mohamed could have tapped into PPP constituencies. The personality of Irfaan Ali sealed it up for the PPP. It is virtually impossible for Ali to lose. Mohamed knew this. He knew from his involvement with the Adriana Younge scandal that Indians saw on the afternoon and evening of April 28, 2025, the definitive conclusion that the PNCR and its allies are violence- prone.

Mohamed knew his behind-the-scene involvement in April 28 had severely weakened his chance of political survival. So, he hung on to the tailcoat of Aubrey Norton. What Norton did not know was that Mohamed was using the coat to strangle the PNCR leader. He has.

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.