Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Guyana president sails toward easy election win

Thursday, August 31, 2006

by: Sharief Khan

Guyana (Reuters), GEORGETOWN: Guyana's youthful President Bharrat Jagdeo sailed toward a comfortable re-election victory in Monday's general election, official poll results showed on Wednesday.

With 75 percent of votes tallied by midday Wednesday, the election commission said Jagdeo's People's Progressive Party/Civic, or PPP/C, had more than 150,000 votes to 93,000 for the main opposition People's National Congress Reform, or PNCR, headed by lawyer Robert Corbin.

Those results showed Jagdeo, a Moscow-trained economist who has promised better government services and crime-fighting, was headed to re-election in the impoverished former British colony and will keep a majority in the 65-member parliament.

Jagdeo won support by building schools, water pipelines and roadways and by reducing the country's debt. But Guyana, about the size of Britain with a population of just 750,000, still struggles with high crime, growing drug trafficking and a lack of investment despite rich timber and bauxite reserves.

"We are working toward official final results by 8 p.m. or, if not, very early in the morning," Guyana's Chief Elections Officer Gocool Boodoo told Reuters.

The Guyana Election Commission said it appeared that some 75 percent of Guyana's 492,000 eligible voters cast ballots.

Results released by the elections commission on Wednesday showed newcomers Alliance for Change or AFC with about 23,000 of the votes counted so far.

Crime rates become the focus of electoral campaigning after several high-profile killings shocked Guyanese. Earlier this year a minister was gunned down in his home and five newspaper print plant workers were assassinated execution-style.

Jagdeo, who worked his way up the party ranks after entering politics as a teenager, was favored to win re-election in the small South American nation, where tensions between the ethnic Indian majority and Afro-Guyanese have marred three previous votes.

Monday's poll went ahead without any violence, but Georgetown remained edgy as residents waited for possible reactions from Jagdeo's foes. Soldiers were dispatched to the streets during and after the vote.

Elections in 1992, 1997 and 2001 ended in rioting and several deaths when tensions between the two main parties exploded into violence and looting.

South America's only English speaking country, Guyana gained its independence from London in 1966. Most residents are either descendants of African slaves or of indentured workers brought from India and China to work on sugar cane plantations.

The ethnic Indian majority mostly backs Jagdeo's ruling PPP/C. Corbin, 58, and the PNCR claimed support primarily from Guyanese who trace their roots back to Africa.

Jagdeo on Tuesday said he was confident of victory, but Corbin denounced irregularities and accused the ruling party of fraud at one polling station.

Observers, including teams from Commonwealth nations and the Organization of American States noted some difficulties in the ballot, but said they would not affect the outcome of the successful vote.

Corbin said his party had discovered collusion at some polling stations between election officials and poll workers from the ruling party, which had allowed unregistered voters to cast ballots. He said he would challenge those results.

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