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Guyana elections: David Granger unites opposition in bid to oust President Ramotar
Guyana votes Monday in elections pitting embattled President Donald Ramotar against an upstart opposition alliance seeking to unite voters across racial lines with its calls to end corruption.
Ramotar, whose party has ruled the country since 1992, called the elections to end a standoff with the opposition-controlled parliament, which he suspended to avoid a no-confidence vote.
Ramotar, is hoping to shore up the mandate of his People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) and stop parliament from thwarting his pet infrastructure projects – including a new international airport, a 165-megawatt hydro-power plant and a high-tech specialty hospital.
But the new five-party opposition coalition is shaking up politics in Guyana, whose 750,000 people have roots in India, Africa and the Americas and have traditionally voted along ethnic lines.
It has brought together traditionally Afro-Guyanese and Indian Guyanese parties and is also seeking to win the indigenous Amerindian vote to take both the presidency and the 65-seat National Assembly.
Its presidential candidate is retired army commander David Granger, 69, a career military officer with no political experience outside losing the 2011 presidential race to Ramotar.
Granger he has established himself as a serious contender with a platform centered on security issues – a key concern for voters fed up with drug crimes, human trafficking, gun violence and corruption.
The general elections come after opposition parties blocked Ramotar’s funding requests in parliament, demanding more transparent accounting of government spending.
When he defied parliamentary budget cuts, spending the money anyway and submitting “Statements of Excesses” after the fact, the opposition called a no-confidence vote.
With the motion set to pass, the president suspended parliament in November and then called elections, setting them 18 months ahead of schedule.
Under Guyana’s proportional representation system the presidency will go to the party that claims the most seats in parliament.
There are some 570,000 registered voters and more than 2,000 polling stations will open for voting at 6:00 am EDT and close at 6:00 pm EDT, with results expected a day or two later.
Source: AFP