THE PEOPLE OF GUYANA who went to the polls Monday, have re-elected the People’s Progressive Party-Civic for the fifth consecutive time and chosen a new president to run the Caribbean/South American country for the next five years.
The results announced yesterday, revealed that Guyanese have ensured that the ruling party no longer has the majority in parliament. Of the 65 seats in the National Assembly, the PPP-C barely missed sealing the majority by one seat and now has 32 instead of the 36 they won in 2006.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) won 26 seats and the Alliance For Change (AFC) seven.
With an overall 166 340 votes, the PPP-C, Guyana’s oldest party co-founded in 1950 by Cheddi Jagan, captured 48.6 per cent of the national vote, while APNU, a coalition of the former People’s National Congress and other dissident groups, got 40.8 per cent with 139 678 votes. The AFC gained 10.3 per cent of the vote with 35 333.
President-elect Donald Ramotar told reporters from his Robb Street, Georgetown party headquarters yesterday that he was prepared to take Guyana forward on what he had. “I would’ve liked to have a majority in parliament but the electorate has spoken and we have to work with what we have,” he told the WEEKEND NATION.
Adding that he was prepared to work with the opposition as promised during the 2011 campaign, Ramotar said: “I meant that . . . and I hope to start working as soon as possible to establish a cabinet and to appoint members of parliament, and to continue to give this country what will take it forward. I hope to do that as soon as possible, in a matter of days.”
Efforts to get a comment from APNU were futile as the media were turned away from that party’s headquarters, while those manning APNU’s phone lines would only say that the leader and losing presidential candidate David Granger was “on the road and in a meeting”.
But the AFC’s presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan was quick to congratulate the winning PPP-C and its president-elect, stating last night that the “hung” parliament would ensure good and balanced governance and that the national policies in Guyana’s Action Plan “would find commonality” between the PPP-C and APNU.
He also reiterated his call for peace and urged Guyanese to accept the results and get on with their lives.
Up to press time, no reports of violence were forthcoming, but throughout the day workers came out in very small numbers on the streets of Georgetown, Buxton and other usually busy areas. Schools were practically empty and many shops and stores were closed – a clear sign that Guyanese expected some form of reprisal upon the announcement of the results by the chief electoral officer Gocool Boodhoo.
Boodhoo gave the results just after 4 p.m. yesterday at the packed Guyana Elections Commission media centre at the Pegasus Hotel.
