Ramotar congratulates Obama on “well deserved” victory

– Gov’t says it is committed to strengthening relations with the U.S.

Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar

Guyanese leader, Donald Ramotar, on Wednesday expressed his congratulations to Barack Obama on his re-election as president of the United States. “I take this opportunity publicly to express my congratulations on a hard fought and well deserved victory,” Ramotar stated briefly at a trade union event on Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday evening Prime Minister Samuel Hinds had attended a reception at the residence of the U.S. Ambassador, Brent Hardt, in Georgetown, where he had pledged that the Guyana government was prepared to work with the U.S. government, whether it was led by a Democrat or Republican.
At that event Ambassador Hardt noted the assistance his government had extended to Guyana to strengthen democracy and governance while adding that there was a new USAID initiative on elections and political processes they would be working on.
Meanwhile, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries on Wednesday said they were looking forward to continued good relationship between the United States and the Caribbean following the re-election of President Barack Obama.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said he had already sent off a congratulatory message to President Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden on their “overwhelming victory”.
Gonsalves described president Obama, who first won the presidential elections in 2008, as a “friend of St. Vincent and the Grenadines…and the Caribbean”.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar said “he earned his re-election; he remained grounded in the politics of hope and delivery to the people. Congrats President Obama,” Obama lives on,” she said in a text message to the Trinidad Express newspaper.

Caribbean Diaspora bask in Obama’s victory
Jamaican Una Clarke, the former New York City Councilwoman said that she hoped Obama’s victory would result in a change in attitude by Republicans who regained controlled of the US Congress.
“I think all the Republican chatter will now be silenced, and he’ll get more cooperation in Congress,” said Clarke, the first ever Caribbean-born woman to hold elective office in New York City.
“The President’s coalition, including minorities and immigrants, held together. The Republicans will have to re-evaluate everything, including anti-Black sentiments. I was holding on to every word the president had to say in his victory speech,” she added.
Dr. Janice Emanuel-Bunn, a Guyanese-born professor at the University of Phoenix, Arizona, and president of Brooklyn, New York-based Action, Performance, Commitment (APC) Community Services, said she was very ecstatic about Obama’s triumph against all odds.
“It was unbelievable and unprecedented. The fact that President Obama was able to put together a coalition that defeated the  ‘super pacs’ and all the money they shelled out is a testament to people power.
“His ground mobilization was superb. We need to support this president because he will go down in history as our finest,” she added.
Roy Hastick, the Grenadian-born founder and president of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI), said Obama’s re-election means “a great deal for the Caribbean American community here, the Diaspora and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in general.
“While we celebrate a victory that was hard-fought for major domestic and some international accomplishments, we, the Diaspora, must push the president and the Cabinet and other U.S. officials to focus more on the Caribbean Community,” he said.
Hastick said as a strong supporter of the president, he was overjoyed when he received a “Thank You” email from Obama at 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
“I was so impressed. My entire family and I shed tears for this piece of history.  He thanked me for my support for him over the years. The Thank You note, which was also sent to Obama ardent supporters, said in part: “I want you to know that this wasn’t fate, and it wasn’t an accident. You made this happen. You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and 10 dollars at a time. And when it wasn’t easy, you pressed forward”.
Obama promised to spend the rest of his presidency honouring the support given to him and finishing the work that he started when he first won in 2008.
Maxwell Haywood, a United Nations development officer, who heads the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Diaspora Committee of New York, said he was “pleased with the outcome of the elections, especially from the perspective of the two candidates.
“The campaign was fought very hard. The acceptance and concession speeches of the two candidates were very high.
“I feel in a very high mood this morning, because the two presidential candidates reinforced the desperate need for political unity across party lines. To me, that is the biggest success of this election, in addition to President Obama winning,” he added.
Obama, 51, won re-election by overcoming four years of economic discontent with a mix of political populism and electoral math. He won at least 303 Electoral College votes that could increase as Florida is yet to declare a winner. Romney had received 206 Electoral College votes.