GUYANA HAS SPOKEN


I should like to take this opportunity to express my congratulations to the APNU+AFC alliance on its historic victory at the general and regional elections and to David Granger, Guyana’s new President. Most of Guyana, including civil society, many PPP supporters and spokespersons associated with or representing the Hindu cultural community, wish the new government success. We all look forward to measures to reduce poverty and corruption and for constitutional reform.

The results were close, as many observers had predicted, but the APNU+AFC alliance won the right to form the Government. A majority of the Guyana electorate supported APNU+AFC’s message, ‘It Is Time,’ which resonated with an electorate that had grown tired of what the PPP/C was offering, appeared to have little confidence in its promises, was not moved by its divisive message and voted for change.

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LET PEACE PREVAIL!


Guyanese will vote on Monday for a Government that they wish to conduct the affairs of the nation on their behalf for the next five years. Every registered Guyanese has the right to vote and this right must be protected and respected before and after it is exercised. If the majority of Guyanese collectively choose to return the PPP/C to office, despite the great disappointment this will cause among APNU+AFC supporters, this choice must be accepted peacefully. If Guyanese decide to change their Government and support the APNU+AFC coalition, whatever trepidation PPP/C supporters may feel, their Party having been in power for 22 plus years, Guyanese must equally accept the results peacefully.

Notwithstanding the criticisms that have been made of GECOM over the past few months, it is well positioned to deliver free and fair elections, as it has done since 1992. Criticisms of one kind or another have been made at every election time but foreign observers have unanimously, since 1992, confirmed that elections have been free and fair. Their presence, that of President Jimmy Carter, an enduring friend of Guyana, along with local observers, at these elections is welcome and lends confidence to a process that has been under suspicion only because of historical reasons.

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AXE THE DAX


In 1962 the slogan ‘axe the tax’ became well known in then British Guiana. The United Force adopted it in its campaign against a tax on beer in the Kaldor Budget and against the PPP Government. The campaign was the beginning of a successful three-year, multi-national effort, marked by tremendous violence and property damage, to remove the PPP from office.

 The PPP had justice on its side in 1962 but in terms of strategy and public relations, shot itself in the foot. Fifty years later, shooting itself in the foot has become an occupational hazard for the PPP and its Governments.

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PIT BULL POLITICS


The OAS Observer Mission, the British High Commissioner, the United States Representative and the Private Sector Commission have all publicly raised concerns about the dangers of inflammatory language being used in the election campaign in Guyana. The US representative went further and pointed out that the consequences that such language could endanger post-election peace and stability.

The pit bull politics of aggression and personal villification were launched this elections season, as it was at the last elections, with Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo. The elections of 2011 were characterized by the excessive use of hostile and accusatory language, focused mainly on the PNCR’s past and abuse of political opponents.

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PRESIDENT CARTER, A TRUE FRIEND OF GUYANA, VISITS AGAIN.


When the US Government under President Bush decided in 1990 that it would support free and fair elections in Guyana, it was the Carter Centre that was called upon to act as the midwife for a new era of democracy in Guyana. Even though the Hoyte government’s lifeline of international financial and diplomatic support had been partially severed, the government still resisted the reforms demanded by the then opposition. It required the renowned stature and nuanced diplomatic skills of President Carter to negotiate the necessary concessions that would guarantee free and fair elections. President Carter’s name will remain forever associated with Guyana’s democracy.

President Carter and the Carter Centre remained engaged with Guyana. It established a permanent office, mounted a second full observer mission for the 2001 elections and conducted a focused observation for the 2006 elections. On both occasions it concluded that the elections were free and fair. Even though the opposition has never accepted the credibility of any elections after 1992, the presence of the Carter Centre and other observer missions and their positive conclusions, satisfied the international community. As a result the opposition’s campaigns had little traction outside Guyana. Today we have the ludicrous spectacle of both parties alleging that the 2011 elections were rigged against them.

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