GUYANA | Adam’s notebook : Confusion reigns among Guyana's opposition parties

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, October 15, 2025 -All the political parties except the incumbent People’s Progressive Party went into the September 1, 2025 elections with the aim of toppling the government. They all campaigned against the excesses of the PPP. They all contended that the PPP was corrupt and needed to be removed from office.

Barely a month after those elections, the opposition parties are doing their best to ensure that the PPP enjoys the best that there is.

For as long as there have been elections in Guyana after 1964, the PPP always announced that it wanted to control Region Four. Another announcement by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo was that his party wanted to control the city.

His party now controls Region Four.  This did not have to happen. Had the opposition formed a united front, Jagdeo’s dream of controlling Region Four would not have been realized.

The story leading up to the opposition collapse is a comedy of errors and egotistic behavior. There were four regions that the opposition could have taken. Region Four, Region Seven, Region Eight and Region Ten were theirs for the taking. They have taken Region Seven.

The seats in these regions were allocated. The problems surfaced during the elections for the Regional Chairmen of three of these regions. We Invest In Nationhood—WIN—secured seven of the 15 seats in Region Eight. The PPP also secured seven, leaving A Partnership for National Unity with the casting vote.

There must have been negotiations because the PPP secured the chairmanship in Region Eight. APNU secured the Vice Chairperson. For starters, WIN would have been angry at being left out of the leadership of a region in which it did remarkably well. It had secured the joint highest number of seats.

This anger set the stage for what was to happen later. Spokespersons for APNU said that they had engaged WIN about the allocation of the regional Chairpersons and the Vice Chairpersons. They said that at no time was there an engagement with the PPP.

The vote in Region Eight should have gone differently. Ganesh Mahipaul, speaking on the podcast Nation Watch, said that his party indicated to WIN that for these three regions his party was prepared to accept the chairmanship of Region Four and give WIN the vice chairman position. 

He said that in Region Eight, his party was prepared to give WIN the chairmanship and accept the vice chairmanship. In Region Ten, Mahipaul and Mayor Sharma Solomon both said that the WIN candidate for the post of chairman, Mark Goring, bluntly refused the proposition.

The proposition was that APNU would have taken the chairperson and WIN the Vice Chairperson. But even here there was talk about concession.

In the midst of confusion there is always one sane head. Leader of Forward Guyana Movement, Amanza Walton-Desir, lamented the fact that there was not a meeting of all the opposition parties ahead of the vote.

Indeed, that would have been the wisest thing to do. Following that meeting the opposition parties would have had a unified position. Region Ten would have been contentious especially since Goring was quoted as saying that he, perhaps his party, wanted to bury APNU.

That would have rankled the APNU caucus but at the meeting such talk could have been modified. Differences could have been resolved and what transpired in the end could have been avoided.

Sadly, there was no meeting of the combined opposition. The result was that a fragmented opposition confronted the PPP. 

The voting in Region Four was contentious. There are 35 councillors in this region. The combined opposition has eighteen votes, enough to outvote the PPP. But in the end the PPP secured both the chairperson and the vice chairperson. 

The ballot was secret. WIN reportedly abstained. One talking point is that the APNU candidate for the vice chair secured eight votes although the party had nine members on the council. The PPP secured 18 votes although it has seventeen members on the council.

Now fingers are being pointed. There is the accusation that one APNU member voted for the PPP against his own party’s nominee. Because of the secrecy of the ballot and the confirmation that Forward Guyana Movement voted for the APNU candidate the conclusion is that two APNU members failed to cast a ballot to help the party.

It is this action that has led to the drastic defeat of APNU at the September polls. 

Region Ten is still undecided. APNU has proposed Dominique Blair for the post of chairman. Mark Goring is his challenger. According to reports, Goring was nominated by APNU to be the Regional Vice Chairperson when the incumbent died during the last sitting of the council.

Sharma Solomon said that his party gave Goring all the support he needed while in office. He cannot understand this vehemence on the part of Goring against APNU.

Whatever the case, the law stipulates conditions for the resolution of the Region Ten debacle. If the law is followed councilors would have to publicly indicate how they vote. If the tie persists then lots would be drawn to determine the eventual chairperson.

This does not signal a challenging time for the PPP in parliament. Should this situation continue then rest assured people would be right when they say that Guyana has no parliamentary opposition.

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