THERE are six presidential contenders – Irfaan Ali, Aubrey Norton, Nigel Hughes, Azruddin Mohamed, Amanza Walton-Desir (AWD) and Simona Broomes.
Because Broomes and AWD are not contesting in many regions, they are out of the equation. You cannot want to be president of the country in an election, and you are not appealing for the votes of people in the entire country.
I am not sure how many votes Broomes and AWD will pick up but if they do clinch some votes, it will come from people who were solid PNC voters in the past. Nigel Hughes will not get a parliamentary seat; two reasons explain this. First, the AFC support from the African working class throughout Guyana are gone.
Secondly, the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC), which forms the backbone of the AFC, will probably not vote because they pinned all their hopes on an APNU+AFC ticket with Nigel Hughes as presidential candidate. That reality never came so the MCC may stay home. If MCC don’t abstain, they may give AWD their ballots knowing that after 2025, Nigel is gone forever from politics. So, Nigel’s rodeo is over before it began.
Azruddin Mohamed got a rude awakening. He is too unintelligent to understand simple politics much less the complex world of Guyanese politics. Drowning in his own so-called popularity before election date was announced, Mohamed felt that a rich playboy like him could do anything in Guyana that he wanted. He could wade his way into the police force. He could wade his way into the GRA. He could wade his way into Guyanese society.
Mohamed then figured that if he entered politics, he could negate all opposition parties because all opposition parties would gravitate toward him because he is the famous playboy. He was right. All the opposition parties made a crown and handed it to him during the Adriana Younge tragedy.
Few Guyanese know that one of the reasons Mohamed decided to enter politics was because all the opposition parties anointed him during the Younge tragedy. Only one piece of information of his role with the political parties in the Younge drama have been made public – Adriana’s mother said publically she gave Darren Wade the $US 6000 that Azruddin gave her for the third pathologist.
Mohamed has fallen hard back down to earth. The sordid, incredible horror stories about his life have dissolved people’s political interest in him. Arzuddin Mohamed is facing a bleak future after September 1, and he deserves what’s coming to him.
The field is left with Aubrey Norton and Irfaan Ai. Norton beating Ali is a scientific impossibility. Mohamed Irfaan Ali is a better human than Aubrey Norton. This is not to say that Norton is not an acceptable person. He is. But Ali is simply a better person. Space will not allow for a comparative analysis between Ali and Norton if you are going to say one is of finer quality.
So, the analyst must select one or two variables. I am going to concentrate on one crucial area of philosophical difference between the two presidential contenders.
That trait lies in the ideology of ethnic thinking. Dr. Ali, in five years of presidential power, has not voiced or committed not even one indiscretion when it comes to the races of this nation. No African Guyanese can cite a phrase or word or exclamation or reflection or statement by Ali in any forum about ethnicity in Guyana.
He just does not think about that sensitive area for which Norton has fallen so badly that 10 weightlifters will experience an onerous effort to pick him up from the ground.
Dr. Ali is a Guyanese politician that has never made a criticism that contains a racially charged remark. Dr. Ali has never embraced someone whom the society frowns on because of racial sermons.
Two areas of racial sensitivity Norton have simply disregarded and he has done so much to his self-destruction. One is the Geeta Chandan episode in which she rejected a statement from an African WPA woman who made condescending, racially charged and insulting remarks about the Indian race in Guyana. Ms Chandan was a serving PNC parliamentarian at the time and Norton refused to stand by her when she was being attacked.
Secondly, any sensible politician would not touch David Hinds. Indian people, Guyanese of mixed race, the Portuguese community and the Indigenous people reject everything that Hinds stands for. Except Norton of course!
Ali will do on September 1 what Norton will find impossible to achieve. Ali will secure substantial multi-racial votes, including an impressive showing among African Guyanese. This will lead him onto the boulevard of presidential victory.
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.