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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. The 1980 constitution provides for a single-chamber national assembly of 65 members, 53 elected by universal suffrage and 12 elected by the regions, 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 cabinet that is collectively responsible to it.

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 1953 a constitution providing for free elections to an assembly was introduced, and the left-wing People's Progressive Party (PPP), led by Dr Cheddi Jagan (1918-97), won the popular vote. 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 a breakaway group from the PPP founded a new party, the People's National Congress (PNC), which 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 Jagan becoming chief minister. Internal self-government was granted in 1961 and, with the PPP again the successful party, 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.

After independence

This coalition took the country through to full independence 1966. The PNC won the 1968 and 1973 elections; in 1970 Guyana became a republic within the Commonwealth. In 1980 a new constitution was adopted, making the president head of both state and government, and as a result of the 1981 elections - which opposition parties claimed were fraudulent - Burnham became executive president. The rest of his administration was marked by economic deterioration (necessitating austerity measures) and cool relations with the Western powers, particularly the USA, whose invasion of Grenada he condemned. He died in 1985 and was succeeded by Prime Minister Desmond Hoyte. In the August 1992 general election, the PPP had a decisive win and its veteran leader, Cheddi Jagan, became president. After Jagan's death in March 1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds was sworn in as his successor and Janet Jagan, Cheddi's wife, became interim prime minister. In the December 1997 general election she was elected president. In June 1998 there were violent street protests against her government. In January 1999 a commission was appointed to reform the constitution.

Janet Jagan resigned in August 1999 because of ill health. She was succeeded by her finance minister, Bharrat Jagdeo, and Samuel Hinds was reappointed as prime minister. Elections in December were declared void by a constitutional judge because 10% of the electorate had been disenfranchised by a requirement to possess a special voter identity card. Elections in March 2001 saw Jagdeo and the PPP re-elected. The elections were followed by riots organized by opposition supporters.

In May, to defuse the tensions arising from the disputed March elections, opposition leader Desmond Hoyte agreed to recognize the legitimacy of the PPP government, and to the establishment of an Ethnic Relations Commission.

Berbice Braithwaite, Edward Ricardo Caribbean Community and Common Market Essequibo Georgetown (Guyana)

Guiana Hinds, Samuel Archibald Anthony Hoyte, (Hugh) Desmond Nichols, Grace