How the PNCR and AFC Sealed Their Fate

Sep 26, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – By now, any reasonable observer of Guyanese politics should recognise the perennial theater that the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) continues to stage regarding the voters’ list. Their persistent calls to “sanitise” the list are as predictable as they are unconvincing. It is an exercise in distraction, nothing more.

The PNCR and AFC have mastered the art of deflection, conveniently shifting blame to externalities like the electoral register rather than confronting their own failures. But behind this smokescreen lies a more fundamental truth: the greatest threat to free and fair elections in Guyana is not the voters’ list, but the Opposition itself.

To understand the depth of the PNCR and AFC’s betrayal of democratic principles, one need only revisit the events of 2020. The ignoble attempt to rig the election was not just a political blunder—it was a grievous assault on  democracy in Guyana.

With each passing day, it becomes clearer that this Opposition coalition has no interest in the will of the people unless it serves their purposes. Their rejection of electoral outcomes that do not favor them has transformed them from contenders for power into pariahs within their own country. This betrayal has consequences, and one of those consequences is the near-certainty that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPPC) and President Irfaan Ali will coast to victory in 2025. But the PNCR and AFC have no one to blame for their electoral demise but themselves.

What is most striking about this ongoing charade over the voters’ list is its glaring hypocrisy. The very system that they now decry was perfectly acceptable to them when they won the 2015 elections. Did they protest the validity of the list when the results favored them? Of course not. Back then, there was no talk of “sanitization” or manipulation. It was only when they lost in 2020 that the voters’ list suddenly became an issue. Their protests now are not rooted in genuine concern for electoral integrity, but in the calculated politics of grievance—a desperate attempt to stay relevant when their legitimacy has all but evaporated.

The obsession with the voters’ list is also a subtle admission of the Opposition’s realization that they are unelectable. The PNCR and AFC would have the public believe that their exclusion from office is the result of some nefarious plot by the ruling party to manipulate the electoral list.

But the truth is far simpler and more damning: they have made themselves unelectable by their own actions. The attempt to rig the 2020 elections was a catastrophic self-sabotage that has rendered them politically toxic. The people of Guyana can no longer trust the Opposition to respect the outcomes of free and fair elections, and this distrust is not going away anytime soon.

For those who have long supported the PNCR and AFC, this must be a bitter pill to swallow. The rigging debacle of 2020 has done more than just cost them a single election—it has likely ensured that they will never hold power again. The coalition’s supporters may bristle at this conclusion, but the reality is unavoidable: in attempting to steal an election, the PNCR and AFC have permanently alienated the very voters they need to return to office. Their reckless gambit has closed off any path back to power, and all the protests in the world won’t change that.

The Opposition’s strategy of clinging to the narrative of an “installed” government is both pathetic and pernicious. It is pathetic because it reveals their inability to move on from their defeat, clinging instead to a fantasy that paints them as victims of a grand conspiracy. It is pernicious because it undermines the very democratic processes they claim to champion. By refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 elections, they have sowed the seeds of doubt in the minds of their supporters, fomenting division and distrust in Guyanese institutions. This is not the behavior of a responsible opposition—it is the behavior of a political faction that has abdicated its duty to the people.

If Guyana’s democracy is to flourish, the public must resist the Opposition’s attempts to deflect attention away from their own failures. The voters’ list is not the problem; the problem is an Opposition that refuses to accept the will of the people. The PNCR and AFC have made it clear that they are only willing to play by the rules when the rules suit them. But democracy cannot function on such terms. Democracy demands that all participants respect the outcomes of elections, win or lose. By attempting to circumvent this principle in 2020, the Opposition has forfeited its claim to moral authority.

In the lead-up to the 2025 elections, it is imperative that the people of Guyana remain vigilant. The Opposition will continue to peddle its narrative of victimhood, blaming the voters’ list for their failures rather than confronting the real reason for their exclusion from power: themselves. But the public must not be fooled. The PNCR and AFC are not champions of democracy—they are its saboteurs. Their protests, their pickets, their endless complaints about the voters’ list are all part of a broader effort to deflect attention from their own self-inflicted wounds. They hope that by muddying the waters, they can obscure the truth of their complicity in their own downfall. But the truth is plain to see: the Opposition is its own worst enemy.

And what of the future? It is difficult to see a path forward for the PNCR and AFC that does not involve permanent relegation to the opposition benches. The attempt to rig the 2020 elections has indelibly marked them as untrustworthy stewards of power. Even if they were to somehow regain office, the stain of their past actions would hang over them like a cloud, casting doubt on their legitimacy. In this sense, the Opposition has not just lost an election—they have lost the trust of the people. And without that trust, they have no future in Guyanese politics.

In the end, the Opposition’s undoing was not orchestrated by their political rivals—it was a result of their own hubris. By attempting to benefit from rigged elections, they have consigned themselves to the political wilderness. And the people of Guyana, who value democracy and the sanctity of the vote, will not soon forget.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

• AFC, electoral, externalities, Peeping Tom, PNCR