Notwithstanding the controversies that have bedeviled the processes leading up to local government elections, it appears as if Guyana will have a date with local democracy on June 12. While local government elections are carefully watched by those interested in public affairs, including the media, the voting public has generally yawned at the prospect. In […]

The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the General and Regional Elections of Guyana on 2 March 2020 is the first of its kind, despite the fact that the first rigged general elections in Guyana occurred in 1968, some 55 years ago. It found that the Chief Election Officer (CEO) first disenfranchised 275,092 voters […]

The Good Friday Agreement, which ended the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, a period of civil war, insurgency, assassinations and bombings, was signed on 10 April 1998, 25 years ago. That anniversary is being celebrated by visits by President Biden, King Charles III, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, under whose leaderships the […]

The constitutional reform process, 1999-2000, and other measures spawned by the Herdmanston Accord, sought to bring to an end the 1997 post-election violence. President Janet Jagan resigned the Presidency due to ill-health and President Jagdeo assumed office in August, 1999. General elections were held in 2001 and the PPP was returned to office. After the […]

In 1943 Cheddi Jagan returned to a British Guiana that was a cauldron of poverty. The report of the Moyne Commission published in 1945 concluded that for the labouring population, “mere subsistence was increasingly problematic.” The defeat of Nazi Germany with the help of the heroic Soviet Union inspired many; India, China and the colonial […]