AUBREY Norton failed miserably with his brand of coalition politics. His politics over the past three years were not the brand of politics practised by the former president and leader of the PNC, David Granger.

Norton failed to attract new, serious and old partners to form a broad-based coalition.  He only struck a chord with the desperate, old, racist, and uninspiring WPA party, which did absolutely nothing of value to talk about during the last campaign, but somehow ended up with a parliamentary seat. He fumbled the bag with the AFC, which he courted away from the coalition party, and made many enemies within the APNU coalition.

This is not to say that Norton was to blame alone. Nigel Hughes, long considered as ‘the running man of Guyanese politics’, must face the heat for the failure of the opposition, and more so the AFC, at the last elections. Hughes and all the other ‘tall’ opposition politicians who ran scared of Norton’s brand of politics caused the PNC and APNU not to be the main opposition in the 13^th Parliament, which will be convened in October. 

They never had an interest in the business of coalition politics, and were just in it to get the benefits they could accrue.  The weak men and women of the opposition saw the ship sinking and did not try to save it. They were not men but mice in the game of politics.

Another kitchen cat, Amanza Walton-Desir, was exposed recently when the one seat the FGM managed to secure was claimed to be shared between her and Nigel London, leaving Dorwin Bess out in the cold. Desir then reversed the situation and used her gender as a weapon against V-PAC. The fallout of this coalition or alliance was inevitable, and the public grabbed their seats and popcorn to watch them air their dirty laundry.

The truth is, no real coalition contested the 2025 general and regional elections; no party understood and preempted the challenges faced with a coalition. No party was serious about the lives of the people it claimed to represent at the 2025 polls. And, there was no real harmony, unity, synergy, or togetherness running through their collective or individual election campaign.

All the opposition was concerned about was power, and seeing the back of the PPP/C. They forgot that elections, in modern Guyana, are no longer based on racist ideologies and the usual discrimination banter but on plans and ideas. They forgot that unity is important, and the presence of technology and access to social media played a major part in the elections.

Firstly, coalition politics works best when there is unity, an unshakable bond and togetherness.  Any attempt to allow the cracks to show, especially in the media, is going to do more harm than good.  Norton and Amanza had their sparring in public. Hughes and Norton had been disagreeing in public from the time they were leaders of their respective political groups. Norton and every MP, except for Coretta McDonald and Nima Flu-Bess, were constantly taking jabs at each other, then playing it down.

The rift between Walton-Desir and Bess started long before the elections, and grew significantly after. Both parties are guilty of bullying and disunity. And, the PNC/APNU tried to show the public that it is making inroads in terms of the formation of a coalition with the paper parties that got no seats. Sherod Duncan and Juretha Fernandes tore into Hughes’ skin before leaving the AFC, which was busy preparing for the 2025 polls.

This was the state of the opposition pre-and post-election. If there is to be a coalition in the future, it must be based on unity, togetherness, agape love, healing and reconciliation. There must be mutual respect, and the conflicts must give way to mature politics.

No number of shortcuts or walking around the issue will work to heal the wrongs, scars, and feelings of hurt.  The opposition needs dialogue and an elder intercessor to be able to hold the PPP/C Government accountable in Parliament. If this disunity and level of puerility continue, then the coalition will never work, and should be abandoned.

Secondly, the coalition did not win the 2025 election because of the lack of trust within the parties. The APNU did not trust the AFC, and vice versa. The FGM did not trust Simona Broomes’ ALP, and vice versa. There was an unusually high level of distrust even within the parties.

They are all to blame, and the downfall was that the public had front row seats to witness the plots, backbiting, tales of betrayal, and power drunkenness.

This must not continue in parliament. And, WIN, now the main opposition party, is facing its own share of problems surrounding persons who did not get a slice of the cake or seat, being upset or holding it to ransom quietly. This is threatening its existence outside of parliament and elections. They should know that parliament is serious business and no place for one-liner politicians.

Thirdly, the PPP/C is the only party that understands coalition and alliance politics in Guyana. The party has had its ‘Civic’ alliance functioning since 1992, and it could teach the PNC, AFC, APNU, WIN, ALP and FGM a thing or two about unity, building trust, cooperative politics and coalition politics.

The PPP has a long history with its ‘Civic’ component, and the party has many examples of how to rebound from scandals, disagreements, deflections and all sorts of internal rifts. It is tested and tried, and knows when a valuable and strong coalition emerges.

In a wider sense, efforts to build political trust in Guyana among the key stakeholders and between parties must be centred on tackling deep-seated ethnic and political divisions, promoting inclusive governance, and increasing the levels of transparency and accountability.

The 13^th Parliament must be able to see through and address these long-standing issues, which are seen as critical for moving past partisan squabbles and building a more unified and stable society.

After all, President Irfaan Ali, during his re-election speech, spoke of the need for all parties, including his own, to see past the ethnic and political divisions that leave Guyana paralysed. He spoke about the work that he envisioned the ‘One Guyana’ Commission would do to deal with all these complex and multi-racial issues that currently confront us.

And, despite calls for collaboration, political leaders from opposing parties, particularly the APNU and WIN, must not struggle to find common ground. The attempts at dialogue and shared governance must not be hampered by a lack of trust and unwillingness to move past political adversaries.

Finally, the opposition, as fractured as it is, must find a way to work with this PPP/C Government for all the citizens to benefit through the mechanisms provided in the legislative branch of government.

WIN and APNU must bring the political temperature down while they are seeking to provide good and wholesome representation of Guyanese inside the 13^th Parliament. They must commit themselves to working on addressing the challenges that were evident at the last elections, while at the same time staying abreast with the daily politics.

They must provide the spirited type of representation that Guyana has been seeking in the parliament. Holding the government accountable does not mean opposing for opposing’s sake. It means asking the right questions and getting the right answers to be better able to serve Guyanese interests.

They must prove that they are mature enough to talk and dialogue about achieving the president’s vision of ‘One Guyana’. It must be evident to all of the inhabitants of this rich and diverse land that it is not just a dream but a reality.

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.