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The politics of Guyana takes place in a framework of a representative democratic assembly-independent republic, whereby the President of Guyana is the head of government and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the President, advised by a cabinet. Legislative power is vested in both the President and the National Assembly of Guyana. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The history of Guyana begins about 35,000 years ago with the arrival of humans coming from Eurasia. These migrants became the Carib and Arawak tribes, who met Alonso de Ojeda's first expedition from Spain in 1499 at the Essequibo River. In the ensuing colonial era, Guyana's government was defined by the successive policies of Spanish, French, Dutch, and British settlers. During the colonial period, Guyana's economy was focused on plantation agriculture, which initially depended on slave labor. Guyana saw major slave rebellions in 1763 and 1823. Following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa were freed, resulting in plantations contracting indentured workers, mainly from India. Eventually, these Indians joined forces with Afro-Guyanese descendants of slaves to demand equal rights in government and society. After the Second World War, the British Empire pursued policy decolonization of its overseas territories, with independence granted to British Guiana on May 26, 1966. Following independence, Forbes Burnham of the rose to power, quickly becoming an authoritarian leader, pledging to bring socialism to Guyana. His power began to weaken following international attention brought to Guyana in wake of the Jonestown mass murder suicide in 1978.
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Elections in Guyana take place within the framework of a multi-party representative democracy and a presidential system. The National Assembly is directly elected, with the nominee of the party or alliance that receives the most votes becoming President.
The People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is a democratic socialist, left-wing populist political party in Guyana. As of 2020, the party holds 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly and forms the government. It has been the ruling party in the past as well, most recently between 1992 and 2015. In Guyana's ethnically divided political landscape, the PPP/C is a multi-ethnic organization that is supported primarily by Indo-Guyanese people.
The People's National Congress Reform (PNCR) is a social-democratic and democratic socialist political party in Guyana led by Aubrey Norton. The party currently holds 31 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly. In Guyana's ethnically divided political landscape, the PNCR is a multi-ethnic organization.
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General elections were held in Guyana on 28 November 2011. The result was a victory for the People's Progressive Party/Civic, which won 32 of the 65 seats. Thus even though the combined parliamentary opposition, consisting of the A Partnership for National Unity coalition (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC), managed to secure an absolute majority of 33 seats, as they had not run as a single list it was Donald Ramotar of the PPP/C who assumed the presidency, and not David A. Granger of the PNCR.
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A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is a left-wing political alliance in Guyana.
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Early general elections were held in Guyana on 11 May 2015, alongside regional elections as a result of President Donald Ramotar proroguing the National Assembly. The result was a victory for the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) alliance, which won 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly. Following the elections, APNU leader David A. Granger was sworn in as president on 16 May 2015.
Snap general elections were held in Guyana on 2 March 2020. They were called early after the government of President David A. Granger lost a vote of no confidence by a margin of 33–32 on 21 December 2018, the government having held a one-seat majority since the 2015 elections. However, one of its own MPs, Charrandas Persaud of the Alliance for Change (AFC), voted with the opposition. Granger announced on 25 September 2019 that the elections would be held on 2 March 2020.
General elections are constitutionally mandated to be held in Guyana by 2025 to elect members of the National Assembly and the President of Guyana. The incumbent President is Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who was elected in the March 2020 elections. He is eligible to seek a second and final term, with the constitution limiting presidents to two terms.
The 2023 Guyanese local elections, officially due since 2020, were held on Monday, June 12, 2023, following the latest delay of the officially biennial polls by three years due to lawsuits and vacanies at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) following the fallout and misconduct of the 2020 Guyanese general election and the COVID-19 pandemic. All 1,220 council seats within 610 constituencies across Guyana's 80 local authority areas (LAAs), comprising 70 neighbourhood democratic councils (NDCs) and 10 municipalities are being conteted. GECOM has stated that voting is not required in 291 constituencies in which the ruling People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has won by acclamation due to no other candidates running against them. As a result the PPP/C has retained control and has won allseats in LAAs such as the NDCs of Leguan, La Jalousie/Nouvelle Flanders, Canals Polder, Little Diamond/Herstelling, Ordnance Fort Lands/ No. 38, Kintyre/No. 37 or Borlam, Kilcoy/Hampshire, Port Mourant/John, Bloomfield/Whim, No. 64/No. 74, the municipality of Lethem and has also gained control of the Aranaputa/ Upper Burro Burro NDC. The PPP/C is hoping to win over A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)/People's National Congress Reform (PNCR)opposition strongholds, campaigning heavily in Guyana's capital city, Georgetown, which has remained in APNU/PNCR control since independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. Efforts by the PNCR to postpone or cancel the elections via litigation regarding the electoral roll and local government constituency boundaries, were dismissed by Guyana's High Court in the lead-up to these elections, claiming that, these issues are behind its no-contest of 291 constituencies across the 80 LAAs. The opposition Alliance for Change (AFC), the junior coalition partner of the APNU, has boycotted the 2023 local elections over similar concerns.
References
- ↑ Canterbury, Dennis C.. Neoliberal democratization and new authoritarianism. Aldershot: Ashgate, cop. 2005. p. 117
- ↑ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, pp366-368 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
- ↑ About APNU Archived 2011-11-28 at the Wayback Machine APNU
