PRESIDENT ALI CHANGES THE NARRATIVE

President Irfaan Ali delivered a masterstroke on Thursday last in his address to the opening sitting of the new session of theNational Assembly. What was anticipated to be a routine report to the nation about progress made over the past year and prospects for the coming year, turned out to be much more. The President used the opportunity to announce a […]

GUYANA – SHADES OF AUTOCRACY?

In an article published in SN on August 27 – “Whither Guyana: Autocracy or democracy?” Dr. Bertrand Ramcharan, a former senior UN official and regular contributor to SN, concludes that in Guyana there are “shades” of autocracy. The events that give rise to the “shades”  are: “official inquisitions into the tax status of NGOs; calls […]

A REVIEW OF SHARED GOVERNANCE AND WHAT IT COULD LOOK LIKE

The phrases ‘shared’ governance’ and ‘winner-take-all’ were introduced into Guyana’s political lexicon in the mid 1970s by the ever-resourceful Cheddi Jagan. At that time the PNC had given itself a two-third majority of votes and seats in the National Assembly at the 1973 general elections. It placed the PPP on the backfoot by the nationalization […]

DRAMATIC TURN IN US POLITICS

Kamala Harris, described as an American woman of African and South Asian heritage, is poised to be nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in US elections to be held in November. In slow-motion, over two weeks and more, the effort of President Biden to seek a second term as President, amidst collapsing poll numbers, palpably […]

THE CASE FOR A NEW VOTERS’ LIST

The voters’ list is created by law. It is extracted from the national register when an order is made by the Elections Commission. The national register is created pursuant to the provisions of the National Registration Act and under the supervision of the Elections Commission. In the past, the national register was compiled by periodic, […]