Georgetown, Guyana--Guyana votes Monday in early elections pitting embattled President Donald Ramotar against an upstart opposition alliance seeking to unite voters across racial lines with its calls to end corruption.
Ramotar, whose party has ruled the small South American country since 1992, called the elections to end a standoff with the opposition-controlled parliament, which he suspended to avoid a no-confidence vote.
The leftist leader is hoping to shore up the mandate of his People's Progressive Party-Civic (PPPC) and stop parliament from thwarting his pet infrastructure projects -- including a new international airport, a 165-megawatt hydropower plant and a high-tech specialty hospital.
But the new five-party opposition coalition is shaking up politics in Guyana, whose 750,000 people have roots in India, Africa and the Americas and have traditionally voted along ethnic lines.
It has brought together traditionally Afro-Guyanese and Indian Guyanese parties and is also seeking to win the indigenous Amerindian vote to take both the presidency and the 65-seat National Assembly.
Its presidential candidate is retired army commander David Granger, 69, a career military officer with no political experience outside losing the 2011 presidential race to Ramotar.
But he has established himself as a serious contender with a platform centered on security issues -- a key concern for voters fed up with drug crimes, human trafficking, gun violence and corruption.
Guyana, a former British colony that shares cultural ties with the English-speaking Caribbean, is the third poorest country in South America, with 43 percent of the population living in poverty.
It is perhaps best known abroad for the Jonestown massacre, the 1978 mass suicide of more than 900 adults and children from the People's Temple sect led by Jim Jones.
The general elections come after opposition parties blocked Ramotar's funding requests in parliament, demanding more transparent accounting of government spending.
AFP
