Georgetown: May 11, the date set for the holding of General and Regional Elections in Guyana, has been proclaimed a public holiday by the Home Affairs Ministry.
In a press statement, the Public Affairs Department of the Ministry said “pursuance of the powers conferred on the Honorable Minister of Home Affairs by Section Six of the Public Holiday Act, the Minister has declared Monday, May 11, 2015 as a public holiday in observance of General and Regional Elections.”
President Donald Ramotar on January 20 announced the holding of General and Regional Elections for May 11, three months after he had prorogued Parliament, and only three years after he had been in office. Ideally, election was not constitutionally due until November, 2016.
Guyana elects on a national level a unicameral legislature– the National Assembly. The National Assembly has 65 members. Since 2001, the makeup of the National Assembly is that 25 members are elected via proportional representation from 10 Geographic Constituencies and 40 members are chosen also on the basis of proportional representation from national lists named by the political parties.
Prior to 2001, 53 members were elected for a five-year term by proportional representation and 12 members delegated by local government councils. The President is elected for a five-year term on the basis of the parliamentary elections. Guyana has a two-party system, which means that there are two dominant political parties, those are the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and the People’s National Congress (PNC) now turned A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition.
In what is expected to be the largest showing over the past two elections, a total of eight political parties, including the PPP/C and APNU/AFC are expected to contest the May 11 General and Regional Elections.
The other six are The United Force (TUF) headed by Marissa Nadir; the United Republican Party (URP) with Vishnu Bandhu at the helm; the Independent Party (IP) led by Mark Benschop; Healing the Nation Theocracy Party (HTNTP) guided by Alfred Parks; the Organisation for the Victory of the People Party (OVPP) under the leadership of Gerald Pereira; and the National Independence Party (NIP) headed by Attorney-at-Law Saphier Subedar Hussain. However, HTNTP and OVPP would only be contesting the Regional Elections.
As the parties presented their lists, the leaders all expressed confidence in making a good showing, with those of the major parties staking their belief in victory come Election Day.
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