The ballot boxes have been collected. The votes have been counted and people are licking their wounds. The actions of Monday June 12, 2023 made me recall the saying ‘MANY ARE CALLED BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN.’ There were many candidates in the various constituencies; and there were many constituencies. Some lobbied for votes, others rode on the strength of their respective political parties.
There were those who were plucked from the bosom of one political party, having been enticed by wads of cash. There were those who suffered delusions of grandeur and therefore saw themselves being the cock of the rock. They opted to enter the race.
There were also those who had excellent ideas and good intentions. Their problem was that they competed against the behemoths and got smothered.
In the run-up to the Local Government Elections there was the campaign rhetoric. The rhetoric was ramped up to the extent that people began to believe themselves. And for everyone who believed, there were those on the other side who harboured doubts.
One group believed that the status quo in the strongholds of the People’s National Congress would change. And some on the fringes of the People’s National Congress began to believe the rhetoric.
It was a case of spending money, investing in some people with the hope of achieving what was never achieved before. The PPP has never controlled the city in its more than five decades of trying. Money was seen as the element to effect that change.
There were the red jerseys, too. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo went so far as to say that I get nightmares over the red jerseys. I really don’t recall. What I knew is that on many occasions I smiled when I saw people’s reactions to those very jerseys.
In fact, there were reactions to people seeing themselves in jerseys of that colour. I have some.
I smiled even more when I heard that some of them who collected the jerseys had not even registered to vote. It was a case of easy money.
Then there was the Titanic moment. People stepped from one ship to another. I don’t know how much money they collected by way of compensation. I do know that up to Tuesday morning some were shedding bitter tears.
One lady who scored big when she rode on one ship scored precious little this time around. I heard that she got 15 votes, five of them coming from within her household. Another who also served as a councillor was left to wonder whether she had made the right decision. At a press conference there was the question about anyone who left one ship for another gaining a seat at the council table this time around. There was silence.
There was Linden. In that municipality the issue was never in doubt. The reaction of the people to the jersey and the money told a story. Some collected money but never left the ship. It is now for Jagdeo to ascertain who took his money and left him standing high and dry.
For his part, he said that he made inroads. When I was a young man feeling my oats, I felt that I had made inroads with a girl when she smiled because I did something out of the ordinary. An investment for inroads is a poor investment.
But given the investment and the hope, I saw articles in the media fueling that hope. One writer predicted that by the end of the elections the Leader of the Opposition would be forced to resign. I said nothing because I had been accused of putting words in the mouth of the Opposition Leader.
A very active government-controlled social media was markedly silent on Tuesday. Not so Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. Late Monday night when the preliminary figures began to emerge he told the press that the figures were being distorted. On Tuesday he was talking about a recount. He should listen to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and take his licks like a man. He made a poor investment but he wouldn’t feel it so much because it was not his money.
And what would the recount do? Is he claiming that the people who tabulated the votes cannot do simple arithmetic? The reality is that his government did some good things in different parts of the country. And people were beginning to notice.
A foreigner who is in this country actually regretted not being able to vote. She said that she liked what the government was doing and that she would vote for them.
All the government has to do is keep doing good things in every community. The results would be heartening. Perhaps. Desmond Hoyte tried that approach in areas that were not his stronghold and failed to woo the people from their traditional support.
People don’t realise that it is difficult to change strongly held views. I first heard that as a university student. If a man really believes something, he is not going to change that belief. Jagdeo believed that if he shared money to certain people then he would get magical results.
Ask many husbands. They can shower their wives with everything, but if she is of the firm opinion that he is no good, nothing will change that opinion. One day he may go home and find an empty house. And although this concept is now being put in the open, I am willing to bet that Jagdeo will entice the government to dole out even more money next time around. He had done it before.
A gambler sits at the table and he is losing. He will not get up and cut his losses. He is convinced that his luck will turn. So he continues playing. If he has other people’s money in his possession, he would use that too.
When I worked at the Chronicle many decades ago, there was a fellow now dead who had a car. He liked the horses. Soon he was riding a motorcycle; and then a bicycle.
