GANESH Mahipaul and Terrence Campbell gave their take in a discussion with David Hinds last week on why APNU lost the general election of 2026. In both of their outlines, there was no mention that the PPP won the election through a process of rigging.
Mahipaul concentrated on public infighting within the PNC and lack of campaign money. Campbell felt that a grand coalition would have defeated the PPP. The question is if Campbell and Mahipaul knew of their leader’s position on why the PPP won when they were offering their reasons for APNU’s defeat?
Aubrey Norton told journalist Svetlana Marshall on a podcast titled, “Sources” that there was “widespread rejection” of the PPP in the election but it was the rigging that ensured PPP’s victory. He used the word “rigging” twice. He told Ms. Marshall “a number of avenues were used allow the PPP to win.”
One wonders if after the programmme, Norton was enraged and lashed out at his two parliamentarians. People know Norton does not like you publicly disagreeing with him. I guess we will never know if Norton hauled them over the coal, so let’s move on to analyse two of the factors these men cited for the PNC’s loss. For Mahipaul, it was open badmouthing among PNC leaders. This is a heavy topic that will necessitate a separate article.
For now, let’s look at Campbell’s emphasis on the absence of a grand coalition that cost the APNU the election. In fact, Campbell’s output in the three-way discussion between himself, Hinds and Mahipaul was centered mainly on the coalition factor.
Since Campbell was intricately involved in the rendezvous with APNU and AFC on the 2025 general election, one would have expected him to explain why the rapprochement between the ANPU and AFC suffered a stillbirth. In fact, Campbell publicly said in July 2025, he was trying for months “to break Norton’s hands” (figuratively speaking) to get him to accept a coalition with the AFC.
To speak at length on the necessity to have a coalition for the 2030 election and not level with the Guyanese people is political dishonesty and the politics of deception. No one more than Campbell, except Norton and Nigel Hughes, is in a better position to explain to Guyanese why there wasn’t an APNU, AFC election marriage in 2025.
Campbell could not do so because he is not a politician of quality and without leadership qualities, a politician is always going to be the 12-man pushing the water cart onto the cricket pitch. Campbell cannot answer a simple question which should disqualify him from having parliamentary status. The question is whether he would shake the President’s hand if it is extended to him.
How could any politician refuse to answer such an unimportant query? What is equally disturbing in the arena of opposition politicians is the mental dwarfs that they have as supporters (no apologies whatsoever). If you endorse Mr. Campbell to be someone that you want to represent the nation, why can’t you respond to his hundreds of Facebook posts by asking him a simple question – Dr. Campbell would you shake the President’s hand?
Why can’t even one supporter put that question to Campbell? We have gone past the five-year-old government of APNU+AFC and since 2020 when APNU+AFC went out of office, not one supporter of David Hinds has ever asked him on his Facebook page why his government did not allow for the passage of the marijuana amendment legislation.
It is for this reason I refer to the supporters of these people as mental dwarfs. Don’t you want to know the answer seeing that you as a supporter look at Hinds all the time?
Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to ask him that especially when for 365 days in each year since August 2020, he talks about the liberation of African people yet 98 percent of possession of marijuana convictions are African Guyanese including one of Guyana’s most famous boxers.
We have too many mentally limited people in Guyana. I used to read the online comments in the letter pages of the Stabroek News where the bloggers love to write adoring things about their newspaper.
Yet these fans that were insanely overjoyed that Stabroek News was an independent newspaper could not muster the moral decency to simply ask in their comment; “but sir why did you refuse to carry the letters from presidential advisor, Dr. Randy Persaud.”
These people owed it to themselves to ask their favourite newspaper that crucial question. But then again, mental fools do not know better.

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.