Sir Ronald Sanders is a business executive and former Caribbean diplomat who publishes widely on small states in the global community. Reponses to: ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com

At the end of the count, the incumbent President Bharrat Jagdeo and his People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won 54.7% of the vote under a system of proportional representation and were returned to office.

Many governments feared a repeat of the violence that has marred Guyana’s elections in the past, and has led, consequently, to a migration of people to neighbouring Caribbean countries, and to Canada and the United States.

Had the violence occurred, it would have taken on a racial complexion with incidents between the descendants of Africans, who make up the core support for the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R), and the descendants of East Indians who are the PPP/C’s main backers.

It did not happen this time.  And, the leadership of the PNC/R should be given some credit.  For, had they stirred-up elements of their support, particularly in the Capital, Georgetown, one incident could have ignited many others.

This election, then, marked a turning point in Guyana’s troubled racial history.  For once, politicians did not exploit race for political ends.  And, it is that exploitation more than anything else that has retarded the development of this potentially rich and productive country.

A 2002 population census, which was only published recently, shows that the East Indian community, which used to be about half the population, has dropped to 43.4%.  Applying an equal percentage of East Indians to the electoral register, the PPP/R must have secured support from amongst Africans and other races to win 54.7% of the vote.

Another explanation could be vote rigging, but all the observers of this election from the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Commonwealth and CARICOM have declared it free and fair, and beyond identifying minor incidents, none of the opposition parties has accused Jagdeo and the PPP/C of fraud.

The PNC/R secured 34.1% of the vote even though there was a low voter turn out in its strongholds. The 2002 census had placed Africans at 30.2% of the population.

Then, there is the performance of a new third party, the Alliance for Change (AFC) which campaigned on a non-racial platform and a call for a national government consisting of all the political parties elected to parliament.  The AFC ended up with 8.4% of the vote wiping away the three remaining smaller parties that contested the elections.

All of this suggests that, even though President Jagdeo and the PPP/C, won 54.7% of the vote, the governance of Guyana can not continue as it has in the past in which “winner takes all” and the interests of its members and supporters are paramount.

It should be clear to the PPP/C that 45.3% of the people who voted were dissatisfied with their governance, and that they want to see changes.

President Jagdeo has the opportunity to leave a lasting and beneficial legacy to Guyana.  He can share power among the political parties and so end the politics of exclusion and the scourge of race.

It would not be easy for him to do so.  Before the elections, the PPP/C had declared it was not interested in forming a national government made up of several political parties.  Further, the hard core of the PPP/C will insist that having won a majority, they have a right to full power and to sharing the benefits of such power amongst their own.

But, this would be a short-sighted policy that would do nothing more than reverse the inroads into racial politics that this election might have made.  Guyana would be consigned to suffering and underdevelopment for many more decades to come.

President Jagdeo has enormous problems to tackle.

His principal problem is making the society safe from violent crime which has frightened decent people of all races, severely affected investment in the country and scared away tourism even amongst the large Guyanese community who live abroad.

Much of this crime is associated with drug trafficking, a problem that is so huge that it worries the governments of the United States, Canada and Britain who want to see strong and positive action taken against it.  While they are demonstrably ready to help, they want to see a government in Guyana equally resolved to act.

President Jagdeo’s other major problem is raising the vast majority of the people of Guyana out of the miserable poverty in which they live. Guyana is the second poorest country in the Caribbean, and is officially recognised by the IMF and World Bank as a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HPIC).

To change the circumstances of Guyana, President Jagdeo needs the support of the industrialised countries and the international financial institutions.  He is getting that support, and he could get much more from the European Union, the United States and Canada.  But, if they are to do more, these countries will want to see reforms in Guyana, including in its constitution and governance.

Power sharing among the racial groups through their elected political parties would go a very far way to convince the international community that they should give Guyana the extra help it needs.

Both the PNC/R and the AFC, prior to the election, had declared they were interested in a national government, so they should embrace and celebrate any actions by President Jagdeo to establish a government comprising representatives of all elected parties with the PPP/C having the greatest representation.

If President Jagdeo also has the strength to set up power sharing arrangements under an agreed programme of constitutional reform, Guyana could benefit greatly and his legacy to the country would be recalled for generations.  He should not let it be business as usual.