Guyana is now well in the zone as it gets ready for November 28 elections. The three-way electoral battle for an executive president and 65-member National Assembly will involve the incumbent People's Progressive Party/Civic, a five-month-old coalition of parties calling itself A Partnership for National Unity, and the Alliance For Change. The PPP/C is seeking an unprecedented fifth consecutive five-year term in office even as the APNU, which is a rebranded People's National Congress Reform party dominated by its battle-torn leaders, gets it elections machinery into gear.
As an insight into the trending in the political current now running through Guyana, and which at times grows turbulent with ad hominem attacks by speakers on the platform, just before nominations a tracking poll done by the North American Caribbean Teachers Association indicated a return to power of the incumbent PPP/C.
As the analysts are saying abroad and in Guyana, there has never been a political campaign such as this out of Georgetown. For one, this is the first time the country has not seen a stalwart Jagan at the helm of the PPP. Also, this has been a season of realignments, annexations, coalitions and defections.
Most significant among the lane changing and cross-party traffic was the move to the AFC by Moses Nagamootoo, long-standing stalwart of the PPP and its former Minister of Information. There was also the surprise defection, again to the AFC, by Dr Richard Van West Charles, a son-in-law of the late Forbes Burnham and a former PNC Health Minister. Both Nagamootoo and Van West Charles caused raised eyebrows among their former ranks by jumping ship to the AFC. They have done so with the intent that their surprising defections would contribute to the defeat of the incumbent PPP/C.
Also new to the politics of Guyana is the emergence of what is being described as the 'pick-up-side' APNU. This coalition now presents a significant departure from the traditional battle in the Guyana's political landscape for the lion's share of power, which has always been between the two dominant mass-support based parties of the PPP/C and the PNC.
National elections in 2006 saw the PPP/C gaining two seats and taking its fourth consecutive victory; the party won 36 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly. What was then the PNC won 22 seats, taking a loss of six. The AFC succeeded in winning five seats; The United Force and ROAR each took one seat.
There has never been a campaign as this in Guyana – and despite NACTA's prediction of a PPP/C win, we will only know the outcome on November 28.

 

Guyana continues to benefit from the generosity of its nationals who have made their homes in the GTA. Last month donations at the Voice of the Vedas Cultural Sabha's annual Diwali dinner climbed to $48,000, the money going to the Renal Dialysis Care Unit in Guyana.
"People in their sixties, seventies, and eighties, should be able to receive care and that's… the goal…" said VOV chairman, Dr. Budhendranauth Doobay. He added: "Affordable treatment should be available to anyone who needs it."
Also at yet another fundraiser in the city last month, the success story of the generosity of Guyanese abroad continued, this time to the benefit of the pediatric unit of the Georgetown Hospital.
This time the fundraising was done by the Guyana Help the Kids, which is headed by Dr Narendra Singh. The organisation is working in collaboration with the Guyana government and UG to decrease infant mortality. It has already upgraded the Neonatal unit at the hospital with incubators and monitors, and is working on complementing this with biomedical and respiratory care support. Another plan down the road is to similarly extend support to the New Amsterdam and Linden Hospitals, and other regional health centres.
The efforts by the VOV and the Guyana Help the Kids are worthy of our ongoing support. That these groups are moving forward is evidence of how successful we are doing abroad, and how generously we are giving back to our homeland.