Being dumb all you do is repeat comments frequently heard at Freedom House.  Thanks for confirming how racist the PPP is.

Why waste time, money and energy, Afros will Vote PNC 98%. The PPP will be very FOOLISH to spend much time and resources there.

The reason for APNU AFC being more effective in social media is that they have more effective involvement of the bright youth who long ago developed an excellent hashtag campaign.  Indeed this was at a time when Granger and Nagamootoo seemed to be asleep, thinking that press conferences in air conditioned hotels is all that they needed to do.

So no wonder now that the "old heads" are fully awake the youth voters (40% of the total vote) are very engaged.

More PPP racism.  They have 98% Indo based rallies, and think nothing of that.  To them a 95% Afro motorcade is a riot.

As we are all telling you and the rest of the PPP.  Continue with your racism.  You are angering many young Indians who are tired of it and do not wish to be connected to it.

You are a racist Indo hater, I could care less about what a racist like you say here.

Dirty Indian Moses will not be albe to bring over 12 Percent of Indos to the Congo Racist PNC party.

If a non Indian hates the PPP he is an "Indo hater". If an Indian hates the PPP he is a "Dutty Indian".      Hmmm.  Why doesnt this attituide surprise us coming from the party which proudly calls itself a "coolie party".

http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....coolie-people-party/

We can call the PPP a racist party but give a pass to the PNC? Both Indians and Afros are racists. Guyan is a racist society. In Guyana the balckman can call the Indian "coolie" and the Indian call the blackman "ni***r". Ther is no harsh feelings there. They have come to accept this type of "greeting". 

The PPP supporters on GNI are doing the APNU+AFC a big service by pushing the PPP/C race card. The APNU+AFC coalition is for national unity.

Here is the deal.  The PPP remains a "coolie party" as described by both Rohee and Jagdeo.  Its campaigning is based solely on negating any claims by Nagamootoo on a portion of the Indian vote.  It has no ties to any credible group which represent blacks.  It will continue to be rejected by blacks.

Like it or not but Nagamootoo does have some Indian support.  We can debate how much he has, but even you cannot deny that he has.  Indeed we see the squeal about "dutty Indians voting PNC".  The PNC remains a black and mixed party.  However it has conceded 40% of its cabinet and about as many of its MPs to the AFC, whose support is likely to be more than 50% Indian.

The PNC is trying to attract more non black votes.

Can you tell me what the PPP is doing to attract non Indian votes?  Who within the PPP can blacks rely on to protect their interests?

Or who within the PPP can non Indos rely on to protect their interests? Indos and Afros are not the only racial groups in Guyana.

These are the two groups which determine the face of Guyana politics. That is a reality even though both groups are declining.

Note that while "Indian" refers to a specific group who self identify with their ancestry from India, "African" includes people who self identify as mixed, but yet operate within the context of Afro Guyanese culture and attitudes.  That might include maybe as much as 70% of the socalled mixed population. 

There arent clearly defined barriers as to who is "African" and who is "mixed".  Trotman says he is "African".  Granger says he is "mixed".  Guyanese will argue as to whether Trotman is more mixed looking than is Granger.  People might also even question the degree to which Trotman operates outside of the Afro Guyanese upper middle class.

People need to understand that for political purposes there is no specific bloc called "mixed".  This is a catch all group for those who dont see themselves as being of a mono ethnic background, and there maybe all sorts of reasons, beyond their immediate ancestry to explain their self identity.

  Granger (more mixed looking) may be "African" because he is head of a party most tied to Africans.  Trotman might self identify as mixed, to avoid being linked to a specific ethnic interest group, given that the original thrust of the AFC was to ignore ethnic politics.  Who knows?

So that leaves only Amerindians as the remaining bloc.  Powerless, mainly confined to the interior, and mainly uneducated and impoverished, they arent really structured to function as a separate political bloc.  One doesnt enough quite know how many of them even bother to vote, or are engaged in the affairs of the state.

Reality therefore is there is maybe a 45-48% Indian voting bloc.  Maybe 40-43% African/Afro identtified mixed group. Maybe 7% Amerindian (they vote less than do the others), with the remainder being a valid "mixed" group who do not chose sides based on ethnic affiliation.

Given the history of Guyana the truly swing vote among the over 35 is small.  Its to the younger voters one might see a bit more fluidity and focus on issues as each voter sees it, rather than ethnic fear.

I agree. But let's don't loose sight of the other minority groups. They may very well be able to tip the scale in the final outcome.

You got it right Mits. The other Groups have the KEY.

When we have individuals who put Guyana before themselves, we will see a united Guyana where race is not a factor. As long as we have individuals who want to get their hands on the milk and honey, Guyana will always be divided by race. These "ambitious and honourable" men will split this country along racial lines, keep the people down and continue to spread hatred. I don't believe we have leaders today who have what it takes to make Guyana like when it was the bread basket of the Caribbean.  

I expanded it after my initial response. 

Do not fool yourself that there is a single mixed bloc.

1.  Some are people who most might consider black, but for reasons best known to themselves self identify as mixed.  Trotman being an example.

2. Others are people with ancient non African ancestry which is quite visible, but are fully socialized with the African population.  Even though they self identify as "mixed" they operate fully within the context of the African population.

3.  Others are more recent admixtures, who may identify with one parent more than the other, or who may actually identify with neither, seeing themselves as part of a "new" group.  This is the group which is growing, but I suspect that most of them are quite young, many not even old enough to vote.

These segments will likely behave differently.

There is the Amerindian vote, but the best that they can do is to chose the winner. In the last several elections a large % went with the PPP (maybe 60%).  We will see which party they chose this time, but the reality is that they do not shape Guyanese politics.  They merely decide which one of the two horses available that they will jump on.  The Amerindian party (GAP) failed.

I have nothing but the greatest sympathy for General Granger for awkward positions ya'll (Indos and Blacks) will be putting him in on May 12th.

I'm sure General Granger would wish he could ignore all ya'll and just govern according to the dictates of his conscience.

Racism in Guyana isnt of the communal type that is visible in other countries.  I remember once being among Indians, some of whom were standing next to me, saying some of the most vile things about black people.  They didnt aim that attitude towards me, and were quite receptive.

Racism in Guyana is about ethnic insecurity.  The notion that the nation is divided into 2 ethnically separate groups of elites.  There is a highly developed fear that fairness cannot be expected and that an unfair access to opportunity can be expected, with rewards being divided by race. 

Ironically a similar fear is that the ethnic group might sell out ITS OWN GRASS ROOTS to curry favor with the other side.  Africans thought that Hoyte sold out to Indians, and many Indians today think that the PPP sells them out to blacks.

I maintain that;

1.  we need to acknowledge that this ethnic insecurity exists.

2.  It is not necessarily the same as it was in the early 60s.

3.  we need to determine why it exists in the 21st century.

4.   we need to develop solutions to allow people to feel that the system with be fair.

This discussion CANNOT be led by politicans.  The BIGGEST problem that Guyana has, unlike TRinidad, is that we lack powerful civic institution whuch are independent of the political set up.  So Guyanese are over reliant on politicians to solve their problems.  This is why we have a deeper ethnic divide than does Trinidad, and why our politics is sicker.

Eric Williams COULD NOT get away with what Burnham did, in the interests of "protecting" his African base.

Kamla CANNOT get away with what Jagdeo/Ramotar get away with, because she knows that Tdad has a large SWING vote, who vote on issues rather than race!

So Trinidad functions better even though historically it was MORE CORRUPT than Guyana was, at least before the Jagdeo scandal.  Even in the 50s and 60s Trinis spoke of "bobol" to refer to corruption. Guyanese didnt even know that serious corruption was an impediment to growth.

Right now Granger is more worried about what Vanessa Kissoon (and because of her Solomon) will do to him after May 12th, should he win.  If he excludes her from the MP list she isnt going to take that lying down.  But he is afraid to include her as he will have enough problems with Nagamootoo, so will want only PNC MPs who are loyal to him.

I feel his pain which is why I support him personally despite the PNC and despite dem madman Jaganites in de AFC.