The  European Union has  announced that it is not sending an election observer mission  for the forthcoming general elections expected  to be held in August, unless requested to do so; nor is it  providing funding for such a constitutional event. According to the EU ambassador, Guyana  is not listed as  a crisis country, and is therefore not on the list to be monitored by the EU. This declaration by the Union’s Guyana delegate  is  fullest vindication  of all the efforts that the PPP/C administration has made relative to  its social and development polices and its practices of good governance.

The fact that the republic is not listed as a “crisis country” emphasises the high confidence that this important regional bloc has in the current administration being able to administer its constitutional affairs.

It illustrates also that peace is the natural springboard for a nation’s development, such as what is being witnessed here: a nation that has finally settled down to the pre-eminent task of nation building; and that Guyanese people fully understand the meaning of free, fair and peaceful elections.

Guyanese may recall the fear and physical extremes that accompanied post-electoral results since 1992. There were those who sought to deliberately refuse the will of the electorate. Those scenarios are well known and documented and therefore need no further mentioning. But the administration, in the face of such orchestrated, dangerous actions,  was steadfast in  its determination  in seeing that the gains made in 1992 not be hijacked, but be sustained.   

By dint of well-planned  economic and  social policies, Guyanese, especially many of  those who were traditional supporters of the political opposition,  by the  mid-2000s, were convinced that the administration was governing in the interest of all Guyanese and therefore, were paying less heed to the politics of division and incitement to  anti-nationalist behaviour.

The 2006 electoral poll, the most peaceful for many years, can be said to be one that signalled  the coming of age of the general Guyanese electorate, and even the recognition  by the opposition, particularly the PNCR, that constitutional mandates must be respected and be obeyed. The will of the people must prevail. The opposition gracefully acknowledged this critical element of electoral politics, then.

Sure thing, successive elections held in this sovereign state have been monitored by external agencies, especially at the request of the opposition. Well, such is the norm in the holding of contemporary electoral polls. But the nation has come of age, to the point of now being able to fund its own constitutional affair.