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South America and South Atlantic Islands
Guyana |
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Last reviewed: 6 June 2008 |
Country information
POLITICS
Guyanese politics has on occasion been turbulent. The first modern political party in Guyana was the People's Progressive Party (PPP), established on 1 January 1950 with Forbes Burnham, a British-educated Afro-Guyanese, as Chairman; Dr Cheddi Jagan, a US-educated Indo-Guyanese as second vice chairman; and his American-born wife, Janet Jagan, as Secretary General. In 1955 the PPP split and Burnham founded what eventually became the People's National Congress (PNC). Cheddi Jagan's PPP won the elections in 1957 and 1961 and he became British Guiana's first premier. At a constitutional conference in London in 1965, the UK Government agreed to grant independence to the colony but only after another election in which proportional representation would be introduced for the first time. Forbes Burnham became Prime Minister.
Guyana achieved independence in May 1966, and became a republic on 23 February 1970. From December 1964 until his death in August 1985, Forbes Burnham ruled Guyana in an increasingly autocratic manner, first as Premier, then as Prime Minister and later, after the adoption of a new constitution in 1980, as Executive President. During that time, elections were viewed in Guyana and abroad as fraudulent. Human rights and civil liberties were suppressed, and 2 major political assassinations occurred.
Following Burnham's death in 1985, Prime Minister (Hugh) Desmond Hoyte acceded to the Presidency and was formally elected in the December 1985 national elections. Hoyte gradually reversed Burnham's policies, moving from state socialism and one-party control to a market economy and unrestricted freedom of the press and assembly. On 5 October 1992 a new National Assembly and regional councils were elected in the first Guyanese election since 1964 to be internationally recognised as free and fair. Cheddi Jagan was elected and sworn in as President on 9 October 1992. When President Jagan died in March 1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds replaced him in accordance with constitutional provisions. However, President Jagan's widow, Janet Jagan, was elected President at elections in December 1997. She resigned in August 1999 due to ill health and was succeeded by Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo, who had been named Prime Minister a day earlier. At 35, Jagdeo became the youngest elected Head of State in the world.
National elections were held on 19 March 2001. Incumbent President Jagdeo won re-election with a voter turnout of over 90%. The latest elections were held on 28 August 2006. President Jagdeo was once again re-elected with an increased majority, although the voter turnout was much lower at 68%. The PPP obtained 36 seats, and the PNC22. A new political party, the Alliance for Change (AFC), led by 2 disaffected politicians (one Indo-Guyanese and one Afro-Guyanese) from the PPP and PNC, won 5 seats, and became the strongest third party in Guyana since 1964. Two other smaller parties won a seat each. The elections attracted a good deal of international attention with election observers being sent from several international agencies including the UK. Unlike the 2001 elections, when there was serious post-election violence, the 2006 elections passed off peacefully. In remarks prior to, and following, the election President Jagdeo promised to bring about Constitutional change and to foster an enhanced framework of political cooperation between parliamentary parties. The next elections must be held by 28 December 2011.
