WILL THE ELECTIONS SHAPE GUYANA’S FUTURE DESTINY?

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 9th August 2025, 9:00 pm

The opening lines of Friday’s editorial in Stabroek News states: “Guyana will hold elections that will shape its future destiny.” Similar words have been written before previous elections. But if I were to choose three elections that shaped Guyana’s destiny, it would be the elections of 1968, 1973 and 1992. 1968 ushered in the era of rigged elections and economic decline. In the 1973 elections the PNC gave itself total power by way of a two-third majority which a large section of the middle class approbated as reflected by the public statement of seventeen of Guyana’s most prominent lawyers supporting a two-third majority for the PNC.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTIONS

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 2nd August 2025, 9:00 pm

A brief history of Guyana’s elections allows for the predicting of election results. In developed countries, observers rely on pollsas a guide. In Guyana, reliance can be placed on historic patterns of ethnic voting, to which can be added circumstances that emerge at some elections.

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MASS STARVATION IN GAZA

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 26th July 2025, 9:00 pm

After Hamas emerged from the concentration camp that Israel had made of Gaza on October 7 and perpetrated its mass atrocity on Israeli civilians and military personnel, Israeli officials made their intentions of imposing mass starvation on Gazans unambiguously clear.  Yoav Gallant, then Defence Minister, announced and immediately implemented Israel’s policy of mass starvation which has been sustained until today, except for the brief period of the ceasefire between January and March. He said: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”

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THEY’RE OFF

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 19th July 2025, 9:00 pm

Elections in Guyana are  always attended by unique drama, if not at the beginning, then at the end. Where else in the world would Russian journalists be accused of rigging the elections by manipulating figures on computers while armed with lead pencils and writing pads? Where else in the world would a President agree to a recount and then remain silent while a senior member of his party challenges the decision in Court? Where else would members of a governing party, during a recount of the ballots challenge, without evidence, the bona fides of tens of thousands of voters who were registered and voted under the most stringent conditions and then declare that the Opposition Party rigged the elections? Where else in the world would a governing party, which has the power to compile an electoral list before elections, complains after the elections that a “bloated” list facilitated the rigging of the elections by the Opposition? Where else in the world can a neat political trick of the victim be accused of being the perpetrator be tried?

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A POLITICAL PHENOMENON IS SWEEPING NEW YORK – ZOHRAN MAMDANI

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 12th July 2025, 9:00 pm

Zohran Mamdani is a 33-year-old democratic socialist, who contested primary elections of the Democratic Party in New York for election as the candidate for Mayor. He won resoundingly, obtaining 56 percent of the vote to Andrew Cuomo’s 44 percent. Mamdani initially had no name recognition, and he was polling 1 percent. Cuomo, widely known and a former Governor of New York State, from which position he resigned in 2021 on allegations of sexual harassment of female staff, which he denied, was regarded as the presumptive nominee. He is to decide whether he will run as an independent candidate. He certainly has the resources, having been backed by at several billionaires across the political spectrum.

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