IT was a curious, multi-dimensional, negative, positive and absorbing year in Guyana in 2025. If an academic decides to research Guyana 2025, the material will fill a book length manuscript. It was one of the most interesting and least boring year since free and fair elections returned at the end part of 1992.
I would put 2025 in terms of unexpected phenomena in the same category with 1987. It was in that year that Desmond Hoyte became a shock to the system. Not one person on Planet Earth could ever imagine the new embarkation of Mr. Hoyte, the central core of which was the complete de-Burnhamis ation of Guyana.
Mr. Hoyte in 1987 was a mystery to the nation. It was a reset of politics and economics in Guyana. No one had thoughts of a PNC president in 1985 being different from any of the major leaders the PNC produced since its birth in 1957. Hoyte became a transformational president in ways the Caribbean never anticipated.
In 2020, no one had thoughts of Irfaan Ali becoming a phenomenon. He wasn’t new to the political scene since he was a Cabinet Minister before the PPP lost power in 2015. As a minister in the then government, one cannot say he stood above the rest of his colleagues. Therefore, his presidency in 2020 was not seen as the emergence of something new, flashy and pyrotechnical.
As Ali settled into power, as the years rolled on, Guyana began to see power and personality only seen in Burnham and Jagan before. We never know what lies deep in the psyche of the human until a situation arises. Ali had a hidden talent that he did not reveal when he was an ordinary Cabinet minister. The moment did not arrive then. The moment came when he became president.
By the time 2025 arrived and Ali had to face the electorate that will determine if they liked him and want more of him, Guyana was witnessing people’s power that Walter Rodney didn’t live to see. Irfaan Ali, from 2023, began to give Guyana people power. He saturated himself over Guyana. He became ubiquitous. He became coterminous with Guyana. Despite Hoyte’s phenomenal emergence in 1987, by 2023, Ali had eclipsed Hoyte as the arrival of the new man who would change Guyana.
Then came the test, a test he never experienced before in his political career. He had to face re-election. Would he be rejected? Would he barely scrape through, or would he join Cheddi Jagan, Forbes Burnham and Peter d’Aguiar? In 2025, he joined Jagan, Burnham and d’Aguiar. Their times were the only three occasions in which people voted for the man because they were respected, loved and voters wanted to see that man in power.
There was the PPP in 1957, 1961 and 1964. The PPP won the elections in those years. But people voted for Cheddi Jagan. He was the PPP, the PPP was Cheddi Jagan and for them, Jagan was the personification of what they wanted in a leader. In 1957, 1961 and 1964, there was the PNC. But PNC supporters equated their party with Burnham. They were in love with Burnham, the man and not his party.
In 1961 and 1964, there was the United Force (UF), consisting of Guyana’s Portuguese mercantile class. It was led by a wealthy businessman, Peter d’Aguiar, seen as a business genius. In 1961, the UF got 12 per cent of the vote and 16 per cent in 1964. People voted for the man d’Aguiar, not so much his colleagues and his party.
In 2025, Irfaan Ali did two things that have formed part of his legacy. His personality ensured that the PPP got a larger majority. In 2025, large sections of the electorate voted for Ali, the man, as they did with Jagan, Burnham and d’Aguiar. They were convinced he was a good man, a good president and a people’s leader. It is the contestation of this columnist that the personality of Ali was pivotal to the PPP’s victory in 2025.
The second thing he did in 2025, which catapulted him into the history book is that he has achieved multi-racial voting that eluded all his predecessors. When you see the Statements of Poll as to the cross-over votes he got, then you knew Ali has gone into the history books.
He was the highest point in Guyana in 2025. He was the brightest spot in Guyana in 2025. There were dull moments, there were shocking moments and there were optimistic moments in this country in 2025; Ali stood out in 2025 as the optimistic aura. Sometimes the runner stumbles. I hope never will. I hope when he rides away in 2030, he leaves behind what others to come after may be unable to emulate.
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.
