Zed posted:I was on the Essequibo Coadt to attend the funeral of Munilall. After the funeral, I took the opportunity to attend the rally to hear what fhey were planning.
There was diversity in the crowd. Sone Afro-Guyanese, many Amerindians from Capoey, Mainstay, Tapacuma and the Pomeroon, lots of young people. Because it was a rally, it drew supporters from other parts of the coast. As far as I understand local party groups hired trucks to bring supporters from their areas. In addition to rallies the zpPzp has been holding bottom house meetings and public meetings at the community level.
When i spoke to people there at the rally, their main concern was whether the election will be fair and free.
For those who try to point to the absence of some of the former contenders for the PPP candidate, Frank Anthony was there and made a passionate speech. From the news report, Vindhya Persaud and Anil Nandlall have been at the Berbice and Kitty rallies respectively and supported the election of a ppp government headed by Irfaan.
Its true that crowds are not everything...March 2 is what matters and it is going to depend on which party is able to bring out the crowd to the voting booth. Crowds attending a rally does not mean much when we know there are several factors that dictate why they are attending rallies (its election, people are curious, people are bussed in, people coming for the food, others coming for the music, etc).
It is true that the PPP is pulling crowds that are large. However, so is the coalition. Crowds are larger this election because the population of Guyanese have increased, and there are more voters, as per GECOM. And there are more young people. People are mobilized because this is an intense election. Both major parties are spending a lot of money, with lots of it coming from abroad too.
Neither party can claim a diversity crowd. However, the PPP is in a bind, much more thanb the coalition, because it is the PPP that is not a coalition and the PPP continues to peddle the lie that it is a party that has and represent a diversity of Guyanese. Rohee already put a few spokes in that wheel by saying that the PPP is a "coolie" party.
The PPP and PNC are both hoping that the supporters of the other side will stay home and that they have mobilized their base to capture a winning number to form the government.
The recent changes with the small parties may change the results: One of the two parties will capture executive power, but if the small parties capture a few seats they can deny the winning party control of the legislative branch.