Guyana
Country in South America, bounded north by the Atlantic Ocean, east by Suriname, south and southwest by Brazil, and northwest by Venezuela.
Government
Guyana is a sovereign republic within the Commonwealth, with a multiparty political system based around a dual executive of president and prime minister. The 1980 constitution provides for a single-chamber national assembly of 65 members, 53 elected by universal suffrage through proportional representation and 12 elected by the local government councils for a five-year term. The president is the nominee of the party winning most votes in the national assembly elections and serves for the life of the assembly, appointing a prime minister and cabinet that is collectively responsible to it. The country is divided into ten regions.History
Inhabited by Arawak, Carib, and Warrau Indians when the first Europeans arrived in the late 1500s, the area now known as Guyana was a Dutch colony from 1621 until 1796, when it was seized by Britain. By the Treaty of London (1814), the three Dutch colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice were ceded to the UK. In 1831 they were united as British Guiana. However, a Dutch-style constitution prevailed until 1891. The Dutch town of Stabroek was renamed Georgetown and served as the capital.The abolition of the slave trade (1807) and slavery (1834) brought the ruin of many planters. Between 1838 and 1917, 340,000 immigrants came to the colony from India; this immigration was stopped in 1917 under pressure from the government of India.
The transition from colonial to republican status was gradual and not entirely smooth. In 1950 the People's Progressive Party (PPP) was founded as a multi-racial party, with Cheddi Jagan its leader, Forbes Burnham its chairman, and Janet Jagan its secretary. In 1953 a constitution was introduced, providing for free elections to an assembly, and these were won by the left-wing PPP. Within months, however, the UK government suspended the constitution and put in its own interim administration, claiming that the PPP threatened to become a communist dictatorship.
Internal self-government
In 1957 Guyana's politics split along ethnic lines when Forbes Burnham led a breakaway group from the PPP and founded a new party, the People's National Congress (PNC). It was supported mainly by Guyanans of African descent, while PPP followers were mainly of Indian descent. Fresh elections, under a revised constitution, were held in 1957, and the PPP won again, with Cheddi Jagan becoming chief minister. Internal self-government was granted in 1961 and, with the PPP again the successful party, Cheddi Jagan became prime minister. Proportional representation was introduced in 1963, and in the 1964 elections (under the new voting procedures) the PPP, although winning most votes, did not have an overall majority, resulting in the formation of a PPP–PNC coalition with PNC leader Forbes Burnham as prime minister.Independence and PNC dominance
This coalition took the country through to full independence 1966. The PNC won the 1968 and 1973 elections and was to dominate the country's politics until 1992. In 1970 Guyana became a republic within the Commonwealth. In 1980 a new constitution was adopted. This made the president both head of state and government, and following elections in 1981, which the opposition claimed were fraudulent, Burnham became executive president.Burnham's administration became marked by economic deterioration (necessitating austerity measures) and cool relations with the Western powers, particularly the USA, whose invasion of Grenada he condemned. The PNC sought to make Guyana a non-aligned state and the government spent heavily on health, housing, education, and social benefits. But government attempts to build a socialist society led to the emigration of skilled workers, economic difficulties, and pressure on living standards.
Burnham died in 1985 and he was succeeded as president by Prime Minister Desmond Hoyte, who gradually reversed Burnham's policies, moving from state socialism and one-party control to a market economy, privatization, and a free press motivated by the need to reverse economic decline. In 1987 Hoyte announced that the PNC rejected orthodox communism and the one-party state and the political system was liberalized to make elections more open.
PPP return to dominance
The PPP secured a decisive victory in the August 1992 general election, which was free and fair, and its charismatic 74-year-old leader, Cheddi Jagan, became president. Jagan moderated his previous socialist and anti-Western approach and adopted free-market policies and a pro-Western foreign policy. On his death in March 1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds took over as president, and Janet Jagan, Cheddi's widow, became interim prime minister. After the December 1997 general election, in which the PPP won 55% of the assembly's seats, she became Guyana's first female (and white) president. She held power until August 1999, when she retired on grounds of ill health.The opposition disputed the December 1997 election result and by June 1998 this had spilled over into violent anti-government street protests, which were later defused when, in January 1999, a commission was appointed to reform the constitution. The finance minister, Bharrat Jagdeo, took over as president in August 1999, with Samuel Hinds as prime minister. But the country's politics became increasingly fractious and violent. A constitutional judge declared the December 1999 elections null and void because 10% of the electorate had been disenfranchised by a requirement to possess a special voter identity card.
Jagdeo and the PPP won new elections in March 2001, but, although pronounced fair by international observers, they were followed by riots organized by opposition supporters. After several months of unrest, in May 2001 opposition leader Desmond Hoyte agreed to recognize the legitimacy of the PPP government, and to the establishment of an Ethnic Relations Commission.
On Hoyte's death, in December 2002, Robert Corbin took over as PNC leader and agreed to enter into ‘constructive engagement’ with the PPP. Jagdeo was returned as president again after the August 2006 elections in which th the PPP won 55% of the votes and expanded its majority by 2 to 36 seats in the 65-member assembly. The election was judged free and fair by foreign observers and was unusually peaceful.
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