Everyone out there …literally, everyone with a phone and a FaceBook Page who has an opinion on the upcoming elections, is a prognosticator.
Understandably.
The Coalition which is still determining whether it is, remains, intermittently, on the cusp of talks of a union.
The election announcement that was known since 2020 to be occurring per Constitution, by November of 2025, seems not to have only landed with surprise… but as a perceived plot.
This year was always going to be that election year!
Whether the electorate of the Opposition was informed of that seems unclear, gauging from the tense exchanges between groups that should collate as Opposition.
So, depending on whom/what you read, you’ll come away with your version of euphoria and impending victory, based upon the memes of approval awarded to the comment.
And, Coalition indecision is not helping to assuage the anxieties of its electorate, either.
Its multiple near-death experiences are taking a toll on its supporters…with social battle lines entrenched and contentious warriors dug in, for the long haul.
Each team has its own version of the ONE Guyana it’s fighting for. So the triggers are hair – thin and the targets are combustible. Plots and conspiracies are the go-to battle formations.
And we really think all of this is a result of the flouting of the ‘Duty to Inform’ fiduciary responsibility; the practice of constantly and pointedly keeping the electorate informed.
That the announcement of election date is being despised as a plot- at this fifty ninth minute– attests to them not being advised by their political leaders, that the announcement would have come at any time in 2025.
And the ‘Conspiracy’, assigned to the announcement of the ‘Team’ Party’s decision to contest for the Presidency, adds defeatism to the under-information.
Surely, they were told, that in their democracy, anyone can contest for the Presidency.
The country has a history, particularly recently, of multiple parties with, comparatively, minuscule membership…as a point of reference.
The TEAM PARTY, that has figuratively massaged the hearts of many with its ‘gifts of need’ to select groups in the population, in a not so subtle move to pull votes from an, apparently, fractured coalition, has been around as a ‘presence’ for a while before this election cycle; granting and gifting and establishing a reputation of a ‘right place at the right time’ team.
And the defeatism we sensed after the Team Party’s decision to contest, seems to have triggered a new life-raft kind of clinging.
Memes of the possible ‘match-ups’, engineered by prominent coalition members, hit the social media circuit.
Then came this headline in the STATE NEWS ORGAN .
That they both went unchallenged, without retraction or request for worded apology, gave rise to thoughts of…
is this where we are now? Any means necessary, is the vehicle?
Winning by Clinging demands a couple of things, other than fingernails.
Elections require campaigning which doesn’t begin but is ongoing; and in every locale – NEAR AND FAR, where there are eligible voters; undeterred by the term ‘stronghold’, which remains that because of lack of alternative.
Convenience comes at a cost. Unholy political matrimony comes with its demons. An alliance of political partnership that is ethically questionable or morally compromising, is disservice.
What is Team Party bringing?
Forgive us if we see a merging of interests that are, fundamentally, at odds. Better still, what is the ideology, principles of the Team, that would forge this apparent acquiescence to the social media suggestions?
We’d caution that Coalition teaming should be more than a convenient hook up on the eve of an election…and shared goals are more than the immediacy of winning at the polls…in an abbreviated election cycle.
Victories are neither negotiated nor resolved.
They are won…through relentless effort, overcoming challenges, struggles- while preserving your core by matching and not compromise- which cannot be accomplished by a shotgun marriage to Team Party on election eve.
Happy Memes and Slogans may lift spirits in political enclaves but are not substitutes for the drudgery that campaigning demands.
Take, for example, this ‘Because We Care’ campaign with its abundance of seemingly well pruned recipients for financial gifting.
Glittering generalities like ‘Because we Care’ is a transient fix that unravels when that period passes.
It’s not a plan to render assistance of permanence. It’s a stump speech to appeal to a range of voters without committing to specific policies or details.
And it has a definitive shelf life- when the free money is done.
Campaigns, on the other hand, carry pointed details for a target group. They specify methods of appealing to particular groups in a memorable flow of details, founded in policy.
It’s the good old means to a victorious end that has to be enrapturing enough to secure the vote.
It demands work not posing, not posturing, not pontificating.
And work is not a last minute straw- grab at high tide.
Like everyone else, we’re hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
Whatever the outcome, the need for a major overhaul of the political vehicle cannot be overstated.
That political homelessness would make so many compromise principles for a stab at winning, tells us why OVERHAUL is a better venture than REFORM.
We’ll reserve further thoughts for post-election.
We opened by saying everyone with social media access is a political prognosticator.
We’ll close by saying some prognostications are more equal than some.