President Irfaan Ali has launched yet another verbal assault on the A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition, accusing the Opposition of trying to undermine Guyana’s democracy. But critics say the president is projecting guilt—blaming others to distract from the very electoral manipulation that ushered his party back into power in 2020.
Speaking to media on the sidelines of a recent event, Ali claimed the coalition’s actions during the 2020 General and Regional Elections “left a stain in Guyana’s democratic history,” and warned of the dangers of returning to that kind of politics.
But Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Amanza Walton-Desir was swift and surgical in her response. In a live social media broadcast, she reminded Guyanese of the Recount Exercise, a process that exposed disturbing and undeniable evidence of electoral fraud, that is widely accepted to overwhelmingly benefited the governing People’s Progress Party (PPP).
The Recount revealed 90,000 votes were affected: 61 dead voters, 4,864 unverifiable voters, 150 stuffed ballot boxes, 49 ballot boxes without documentation, and 1,278 votes cast without proper identification. Yet GECOM accepted them as valid, in defiance of the Representation of the Peoples Act.
These revelations, now etched into the public record, shattered confidence in the electoral process and raised troubling questions about external interference and judicial complicity.
Many believe the seeds of this orchestrated manipulation were sown with the controversial December 2018 no-confidence vote, when government MP Charrandass Persaud crossed the floor, triggering a chain of events that ultimately forced regime change.
Appearing on Countdown show yesterday, Walton-Desir issued a warning and made a direct appeal to citizens ahead of the next election: “The PPP is not above stealing the votes of the Guyanese people. This is why we must keep GECOM’s feet to the fire.”
Crossovers or Betrayals? Opposition Hits Back
In a bid to showcase political momentum, President Ali touted a series of high-profile defections from the Opposition benches, claiming they reflect public confidence in what he called a “more progressive path forward.”
But Opposition MP Annette Ferguson dismissed this claim outright, calling the defectors’ decisions nothing more than opportunistic betrayals—not reflections of any public endorsement of the PPP’s record.
These so-called endorsements will never erase the blatant abuses and failures of this government over the past five years,” Ferguson said. She added that the public deserves answers from those who once vocally condemned the PPP, but now suddenly embrace it, despite its track record of broken promises, corruption, and economic inequality.
A Government of Riches—For the Few
Though the Ali administration boasts of record-breaking budgets—made possible by Guyana’s burgeoning oil wealth—the lived reality of most Guyanese tells a very different story.
Transparency International has flagged the administration for widespread corruption. The World Bank reports that at least 50% of the population still lives in poverty. Analyst believe the numbers could be higher given Guyana’s poor data gathering system. Child malnutrition is on the rise. And billions in government contracts—a major share of the national budget—have gone to cronies and political insiders, amid reports of waste, fraud, and abuse.
These damning indicators overshadow the President’s polished rhetoric and expose the harsh truth: while Guyana grows richer, many of its citizens are being left behind.
Looking Ahead
As the country edges closer to another election cycle, the battle over democracy’s future is already raging. The PPP continues to invoke 2020 as justification for its legitimacy, but critics like Walton-Desir and Ferguson argue that it is precisely the events of 2020 that call the government’s legitimacy into question.
One commentator told this publication the fight for free, fair, and credible elections is far from over, and the people of Guyana must not forget the truth hidden beneath the PPP’s propaganda.
“The stain on Guyana’s democracy,” analysts said, “was not left by APNU+AFC; it was imposed by a regime that used dead voters, missing IDs, and illegal ballots to seize power. No amount of crossover or spin will ever cleanse that reality.”
