The People’s Progressive Party has launched a desperate psychological operation, and the media is playing right along. The recent headline in Demerara Waves claiming the PPP is “aiming for a two-thirds parliamentary majority” is not political ambition, it’s narrative engineering. It is a blatant attempt to normalize electoral rigging before it happens. And shamefully, much of the media and political opposition are asleep at the wheel, if not complicit.
Realistically speaking, a two-thirds majority in Guyana’s 65-seat National Assembly requires 44 seats. That would mean winning almost 68% of the national vote, uniformly distributed across all 10 regions. Not even Burnham, with all his machinery, pulled that off in a competitive era. In 2020, the PPP squeaked by with 33 seats and just over 50% of the vote, with no third party threat like WIN splitting their base.
Today, the political ground is shifting beneath their feet. For the first time in decades, East Indian Guyanese are speaking out publicly, about the PPP’s corruption, land grabs, mismanagement, and growing arrogance. The WIN party, led by Azruddin Mohamed, has made significant inroads into PPP territory, offering disillusioned supporters a culturally familiar alternative. The PPP is bleeding internally, and they know it.
So instead of doing the work to earn trust, they’re pushing propaganda. Minister after minister now parrots the fantasy that Region 4, traditionally a PNC stronghold, will suddenly flip. They talk about “20,000 new votes” materializing in Georgetown like they’re ordering them from Amazon. And the media? They report it with a straight face.
Let’s be absolutely clear, These “two-thirds” headlines are not harmless. They are a critical part of pre-rigging operations. You soften the ground. You lower resistance. You seed the idea that the outcome, however absurd, is “what the people wanted.” Then, when the cooked numbers roll out, the institutions shrug and say “Well, they did say they were winning Region 4.”
Already more than 20 polling stations in region 4 have been closed or consolidated, affecting 30,000 voters in APNU areas – Sophia, Mocha, etc. Where is the opposition’s outrage? Where is the independent press’s scrutiny? Why aren’t the political analysts and newsroom editors doing the basic electoral math?
The PPP needs 11 more seats than they have now. To get them, they’d have to flip Regions 4 and 10 by margins that would dwarf historical precedent, all while losing ground to WIN in their core regions. The math doesn’t work, unless fraud is part of the equation.
And let’s talk about what a two-thirds PPP majority means. It’s not symbolic. It’s power, unchecked, unshared, and undemocratic. They could:
- Amend presidential term limits, allowing Jagdeo or Ali to run indefinitely.
- Expand presidential immunities, making the head of state untouchable.
- Alter the rules of voter registration, gutting transparency and entrenching party control.
- Control the judiciary, but opting to fund or defund that institution
This is not a theory. They’ve signaled it already by activating the Constitutional Reform Commission, which would suddenly “accelerate” its work after the polls, assuming their fake mandate is secured.
This isn’t ambition, it’s authoritarianism with a pretty red bow. The silence from so-called watchdogs is staggering. Instead of interrogating power, they’re echoing it. Instead of defending democracy, they’re publishing campaign slogans. And the opposition? MIA. Lost in their own inertia or caught up in backroom deals we haven’t yet seen.
We cannot afford silence. This moment requires vigilance, voice, and volume. The people must know what’s at stake. Because if we wait until the numbers are announced, it will be too late to say we didn’t see it coming.
