– PPP/C secures 48.6 % in polls
THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday declared Mr. Donald Ramotar of the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) as the President-elect at its Media Centre at Pegasus Hotel, Kingston in the presence of the diplomatic community, international observers, representatives of political parties, members of civil society and the media.
However, there were some anxious moments as a GECOM scheduled 14:00hrs press conference to officially declare the results of the November 28 poll did not get underway until around 16:00hrs when Chief Elections Officer, Gocool Boodhoo, along with other GECOM Commissioners and Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally, made their way to the media centre.
Also, there was a bit of drama before the proceedings got underway as an intruder took to the podium and informed the gathering that he is an Anglican and declared himself “King of Kings.”
This left the gathering bewildered even though the incident was somewhat amusing.
But a police officer was quickly summoned and the intruder was escorted out of the Media Centre without any further incident.
Dr. Surujbally apologized for the delay but explained that this was due to a meeting of the Commissioners to iron out a few issues.
After a brief statement by Dr Surujbally in which he reiterated the integrity and fairness of the elections process, Mr. Boodhoo proceeded to make the official declaration of the presidency and the announcement of the number of seats gained by the political parties at the regional and parliamentary levels.
He declared that, at the general elections, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) secured the highest percentage of votes with 48.6%, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) came second with 40.8%; the Alliance for Change (AFC) third with 10.3% while The United Force with 0.2% failed to get a seat.
It is the first time in the post independence period that a minority government will be installed as the PPP/C achieved 32 seats, while APNU and AFC received 26 and seven seats respectively and, therefore, combined will have 33 seats.
Mr. Ramotar has already reached out to the other parties engaging them late yesterday afternoon in a dialogue in the Public Buildings on charting the way forward for the country.
At the August 2006 elections, the PPP/C secured a comfortable majority with 36 seats with 54.6% of the popular votes while the People’s National Congress Reform-One Guyana (PNCR-1G) got 22 seats, the AFC 5 seats and the Guyana Action Party (GAP), Rise Organise and Rebuild (ROAR) alliance and The United Force received one seat each.
During the announcement televised and broadcast live, Boodoo unveiled the results of the Monday, November 28 polls, announcing the number of registered electors, total votes cast, those rejected and those validated.
This preceded the announcement of results by the 10 geographic regions in chronological order beginning with APNU followed by the AFC, PPP/C and TUF.
The elections had a voter turnout of 346,717 which represented 72.9 percent and of this number 342,236 were valid and 4,481 rejected.
The President-elect will be sworn-in shortly, according to the Chief Elections Officer. He succeeds incumbent President Bharrat Jagdeo, who served as Guyana’s executive President for 12 years after he was appointed by former first lady and first female President Janet Jagan, O.E. in 1999.
In April 2011, the Central Executive Committee of the ruling party identified Ramotar as its Presidential Candidate.
Ramotar was born on the 22nd October, 1950 to Sam Ramotar, a Timber Grant operator and Olive Constantine. He received his primary education at Caria Caria Congregational School and the St. Andrew’s Primary School and later pursued studies at the Government Technical Institute (GTI).
He graduated from the Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Guyana and also pursued studies in what was then the Former Soviet Union.
Having joined the PPP in 1967 he has been in the leadership of the party since 1979 when he was elected to the Central Committee.  He became a member of the Executive Committee of the PPP in 1983 and assumed the position of Executive Secretary of the party one year after the PPP was restored to office in 1992.
He became the General Secretary in March 1997 when Dr. Cheddi Jagan passed away until now.
He is married to Deolatchmee Ramotar and is the father of three children. (Additional reporting from GINA)