Political climate to escalate a few notches today as… PPP/C, APNU+AFC hold campaign rallies at Kitty, Whim

THE political climate in Guyana will escalate a few notches today, when the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and the Opposition alliance comprising the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance For Change (AFC), both head to different parts of the country to stage massive rallies in order to whip up support among the electorate, ahead of the May 11 General and Regional Elections. 

The PPP/C was up to late last evening preparing for its rally at the Kitty Market Square in Georgetown, where featured speakers will include Guyanese Head of State President Donald Ramotar, prime ministerial candidate Elisabeth Harper, former President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, and PPP/C General Secretary Clement Rohee.

The Opposition alliance (APNU+AFC) is heading to Whim, Berbice in an attempt to whip up support in the traditional PPP/C stronghold.
Opposition speakers carded to speak include Moses Nagamootoo, the coalition’s prime ministerial candidate and Brigadier (rtd), David Granger, the presidential candidate.

HIGH GEAR
Today’s rally at the Kitty Market Square will officially kick off the 2015 elections campaign for the incumbent PPP/C and is expected to attract massive support, while the Opposition alliance has ventured into one of its non-traditional support bases following its recent rally in Linden.

Speakers are slated to take the stage at the Kitty Market Square from 16:00hrs and the activities are the culmination of weeks of vitriolic barbs being traded back and forth between the political parties as the elections campaign season kicks into high gear.

After being forced to prorogue Parliament in November last year, President Ramotar announced that Regional and General Elections will be held on May 11.

He has since been retained as the ruling party’s presidential candidate with Samuel Hinds being replaced by Guyana’s highest-ranked serving diplomat, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper.

Ramotar has expressed confidence in the team and is optimistic of regaining a majority in the National Assembly.

Following the 2011 General and Regional Elections, APNU secured 26 seats in the National Assembly; the AFC seven, while the PPP/C held the single largest bloc thereby retaining executive power with 32 seats.

The dispensation of seats in the House however, meant the combined Opposition held a one-seat majority, a position which the administration has repeatedly accused it of abusing, stymieing numerous developmental projects in the process.
Announcing a formalisation of its alliance, the combined Opposition in its Valentine’s Day ‘marriage of convenience’ (Cummingsburg Accord) went public with its open secret: the AFC and APNU had been working together all along over the course of the three years of the life of the 10th Parliament.

Leader of the Opposition, David Granger

President Ramotar, in announcing elections, had stressed that prior to the November 10 prorogation and even after the fact, he was open to dialogue with the political Opposition.
“It is a door that I did not nor do not intend to shut, now or ever…In light of the Opposition’s sustained refusal to engage my Government in the dialogue we anticipated and in light of the commitment I made to you, the people of Guyana, I now move towards General Elections,” he said at the time of the announcement.
ELECTORAL SYSTEM
Elections in Guyana are conducted according to the Constitutional provisions which are supplemented by the laws made by Parliament.
The primary laws used are the Representation of the People Act (1964) which deals with all aspects of the conduct of elections and the National Registration Act (1967) which deals mainly with the preparation and revision of electoral rolls.
The current electoral system is the product of cross-party agreement on constitutional reform as catered for by the Herdmanston Accord.
Under the current system all members of the National Assembly are to be directly elected. Twenty five (25) to be elected from the 10 geographic constituencies and the remaining 40 elected from a national top-up list to guarantee a very high degree of proportionality.