IN the 2025 general election, 195,969 persons did not give their ballots to presidential candidate Irfaan Ali. We will never know why people vote. The variables are too varied. Race, charisma, rural solidarity, gender bias, intellectual achievements, religion, business accomplishments, etc.
A person likes presidential candidate Sunil Singh because of his professional accomplishments, but he feels that he has to give his vote to Suraj Persaud, the candidate who came from his village because they were at primary school together. A voter likes candidate Mike Brown but chose to give his ballot to Harry Black, a person who was once his professor. In the case of Singh and Brown, sentiments counted, though they believed in candidates Persaud and Black.
There are countless reasons why people vote. I am contending that out of those 195,969 voters, a majority liked President Ali, thought he was a good man, saw him as the better leader Guyana and the Caribbean produced and would have opted for him if it wasn’t for the particular reason that they voted for the person of their choice.
The enigma of Irfaan Ali in Guyana is that across the political divide and ethnic fences, Guyanese like and appreciate him in a way that such sentiments have never been expressed about a president before in our history. I think Indians adored Cheddi Jagan, and Africans felt touched by Burnham’s personality. But the cross-over sentiments for each man were never substantial.
In the case of Jagan, there was a deep, Freudian fondness among Africans for Jagan. They had a fascination with him because he was an exception in politics that they appreciated. Jagan was way, way beyond corruption, way, way beyond the idea or yearning for the trappings of the la dolce vita.
Jagan carried a sincerity about him that Africans detected and admired, but there was always that psychic barrier that the politics of Guyana created, which made Africans unwilling to vote for Jagan. If Burnham had fallen and been replaced by a brand new African leader who came from outside the PNC, in an election contest, Jagan would have won against that gentleman. I guess Guyana would never be able to measure Africans’ sentimental touch for Jagan.
In the case of Irfaan Ai, we may be able to measure the instinct of African embrace for him in the local government election next year. For the first time in the history of British Guiana and independent Guyana, the PPP as a political party will win the Georgetown municipality election. For the first time in the history of the country, both colony and sovereign state, Guyana will have a mayor that comes from the PPP slate.
It will be a historic occasion, and it will catapult Dr Ali into the history books. Of course, it will simply be part of his general legacy. What I keep turning over in my mind is whether Dr Ali knows the extent to which he is appreciated by the general population. I walk the streets of Georgetown. I buy my stuff at Bourda Market.
So yesterday, I had two encounters with African Guyanese about Dr Ali. I bought mangoes from this African woman, whose husband had a stand next to her. He engaged me and kept pounding away about when the legalisation of marijuana would come. He raised his voice and said that if they do not legalise marijuana, he will not vote. I asked: “So yuh din vote de last time?’ He answered, “No, no, no, I din vote de last time, I ain’t voting for none of them.” Then he paused momentarily and, in a softer tone, said: “But I like Ali.”
That exclamation is pregnant with analysis of how this country sees Ali. There is a Freudian fondness for him that is there among African Guyanese, and depending on the shape of Dr Ali’s promises and deliveries, he will become a phenomenon in Guyana, and I am speaking in the context of race relations.
I bought ochro from an African gentleman, who called out to me and said he knew me from my mother-in-law’s supermarket in Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust. Here is what he said to me: “Maan, Freddie (they never call me Mr. Kissoon; it is always Freddie, a name I hate), deh should pay duh cash grant, prezzy is a good man, he should pay it.”
Just analyse the statement, and again you see the Freudian underpinning there. In both cases, there is an apperception of Dr Ali that he is a good man. I do the rounds in Georgetown, and I can tell Mohamed Irfaan Ali, greatness and history are waiting for him. Go for it, Mr President!
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.