GUYANESE-Americans were on the edge after their former homeland voted in general elections on November 28. They have maintained very close ties to their native land and as such they were anxious to know the outcome of what was a tense election.
Guyanese-Americans have retained their passion for politics in their homeland. Even American-born children of Guyanese have a passion for politics in their parents’ homeland and they were also interested in the election outcome, wanting to know if their party had won. (They identified their parties on the basis of their racial backgrounds, just as their parents and grand parents do/did back in Guyana).
Traditionally, Guyanese-Americans are passionately involved in politics “back home” and they talked about the election campaign in their goings about in the streets and on the phone. They are not inclined to take an active part in U.S. politics but they remain attached to Guyana’s politics. It is estimated that some 500,000 Guyanese are living in the United States, and another 25,000 were born in the US of Guyanese parentage. Almost three quarters of them are settled in the New York area.
Some Guyanese New Yorkers are political aficionados having ties with one party or the other. They live for politics and speak ill of parties they do not identify with. Some Guyanese-Americans were political activists back home and in New York have played prominent
roles in the struggle for free and fair elections. Some raised funds for their parties and were confident of victory. So it was not surprising that they eagerly awaited the outcome of the election.
In conversations, Guyanese-Americans say they do not want to suffer any setback from the progress the nation achieved after the restoration of democracy in 1992. They did not want to go back to the era of banned goods and dictatorship (period from 1964 thru 1992 when it was criminal to be caught with basic food items such as bread, roti, alou and dal).
Many Guyanese-Americans said they regularly browsed the web including the pages of the four dailies and other websites to find out the election results. They connected with NCN daily to get updates.
As in Guyana, in America, Guyanese root for the parties they identify with by race. Traditional PPP supporters rooted for the PPP; traditional PNC supporters rooted for APNU. Some Indos and a small number of Afros and Mixed Guyanese rooted for the AFC. In Richmond Hill and other parts of Queens, Guyanese rooted for the PPP with small numbers rooting for the AFC. 
In Brooklyn, they rooted for APNU. The AFC got pockets of support in sections of Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens.
People waited anxiously watching NCN on the internet for the announcement of the election results from GECOM. When the announcement was put off initially they became agitated and disappointed with delay after delay. GECOM said it took its time to announce the results because it did not want to make errors.
The announcement of the outcome of the elections on Thursday afternoon brought much welcome relief. There was calm and silence among people when GECOM’s Chief Election Officer was announcing the official results
in his press conference to diplomats and reporters. People tuned in with muted anticipation hoping their party had won. They did not want to be disturbed. Loud cheers and feelings of ecstasy greeted Gocool Boodhoo’s announcement followed by laughter and high fives among PPP supporters. 
The phones rang off the hook continuously as people told friends and relatives that the PPP had won as they had expected. Opposition supporters were disappointed and dejected that their party had lost. Some cried foul even though the elections were free and fair. In Queens, although there was jubilation among PPP supporters that their party had won a fifth consecutive victory, many expressed disappointment that party support had declined from the last election and that the party had failed to win a majority of seats in the parliament – which is likely to curtail its agenda.
People were also overjoyed in the Bronx and elsewhere on hearing the news that the ruling PPP/C had won the general as well as the regional elections. Although APNU and AFC supporters were disappointed that their party did not win, supporters of the AFC were pleased that the PPP had not won a majority of seats in parliament and that the AFC will hold the balance of power in what they saw as a king maker’s role.
In general, people said they are very happy that the PPP/C has been returned to office. They look forward for continued progress as happened over the last 19 years, 12 of them under President Bharrat
Jagdeo’s tenure as President and the other years as Finance Minister. 
And they also look forward to welcoming Donald Ramotar to New York in his role as the new President.
The Guyanese diaspora in the US had provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to the PPP for the campaign and are very pleased that their investment paid off. Ramotar had made several visits to New York over the last year. The city has been host to every democratically elected President from Cheddi Jagan to Janet Jagan to Bharrat Jagdeo and Sam Hinds, who had succeeded Cheddi after his death in 1997. It is pleasing to see that Guyanese-Americans have retained an interest in their homeland’s politics years after their emigration and monitoring the election results.