APNU + AFC nonsense: Science will never find all the reasons why people vote
Kaieteur News – In a safe liberal constituency in the last American elections, the Democratic Party lost the House seat to a Republican in Staten Island. Statistics also reveal in that election that Trump (unbelievably) garnered votes from Hispanics, Muslims, sub-continental Indians and Asians. How do you explain that wonder? The Democratic Party lost several House seats to Republicans. A globally liked personality like Justin Trudeau became Canada’s minority Prime Minister. The UK Labor Party was shown worst in its history in the last British opinion poll. Owen Arthur did nothing wrong in Barbados but was defeated.
The analysts can look at broad trends in determining how people vote. A perfect example is American Blacks. They will go to the poll in record numbers to vote for Black candidates. But there are always little hidden variables that science won’t pick up on. Space will not allow for all the examples associated with the situations mentioned above. But here are a few of them.
Arthur lost because of voter fatigue not because of any poor performance. Barbadians simply wanted a change from a prime minister who they felt had been around for too long. Many Americans from India, Pakistan and Arab countries dislike the Democratic Party due to factors such as ideology and skin color.
Arabs and middle-class Pakistanis in the US feel that in terms of color, they are white too and consider the Democratic Party to have too many Blacks. Latin people in Florida are anti-communists who see the Democratic Party as a left-wing outfit. Labor was routed in the UK because of one man – their leader Jeremy Corbin. He came across as impassive rather than his opponent but Jeremy Corbin was the one who the British electorate regarded as a determined, self-confident person. Trump should not have collected those votes and Labor should have beaten Boris Johnson. We expected that to happen for reasons we thought were obvious. But there are small, invisible variables at work that make people vote that science cannot emerge. We should apply this pattern to Guyana. Clearly, there were the macro factors why APNU + lost AFC. But the PPP did not win a landslide victory. Small parties gained 9000 votes.
Is it possible that there were some small factors in place that led to the APNU + AFC being lost in addition to those obvious ones that the whole world knows about? Here is an exploration on that topic. I live on the Railway Embankment. The Caricom Secretariat separates my house into the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC). Parliament has been meeting at the ACCC since September last year. There has not been one instance of traffic harassment that tortured passengers as when the APNU + AFC was in office.
Between 2015 and 2018, the APNU + AFC government, when Parliament was in session, disrupted the lives of Region Four citizens in humorous and simply unbearable ways. Lombard Street at its junction with Princes Street and then Avenue of the Republic at its junction with Regent Street were completely prevented from creating chaos that spread deep into western Georgetown.
I know about this madness because I got caught in it many times and guess where? At Bourda Market because the traffic backup has touched the Bourda area. It may seem unlikely to you but is it possible that such events have completely turned people off and they felt that the APNU + AFC regime was stupid to have done such things and not did they vote for them in 2020?
What about the Ministry of Agriculture stories of the execution of puppies of people at Ogle airport because they had no documents to show the country of origin of the pets? This country has thousands of animal lovers who felt they could not vote ANU + AFC philists to power that kill greedy dogs.
Then a dog license was issued. What went through the heads of Finance Minister Winston Jordan and President Granger to demand that people take a license for their dogs? Then there was that startling increase in the license for horse / donkey carts.
You may not see the connection between these factors and the loss of the 2020 election but I argue that there is one. Science cannot determine all the factors that make people vote in and vote out politicians. I think the events, which I described played a role in how people voted in 2020. I know that because of the puppy deaths at Ogle airport, I could no longer stand APNU + AFC clowns and I wanted them to them not only out of power but out of my country. I say everything honestly; I’m glad they were gone forever.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)