Ramotar wins presidency in 2011 Guyana polls

After some delay and anxiety by the Guyanese populace, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has announced that Donald Ramotar, a trained economist of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has been declared the next president of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.

Official results released by Gecom shows that the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic has won the 2011 General and Regional elections for the fifth consecutive time.

Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo made the revelation during a press conference on Thursday afternoon, three days after ballots were cast countrywide.

According to the figures revealed by the CEO, of the 475, 496 electors, 346, 717 votes were cast, with 4,481 rejected ballots. The PPP/C secured 166, 340 of the votes, while its main contender, the PNCR-led, A Partnership for National Unity, amassed 139, 678 votes.

The Alliance for Change acquired 35, 333 of the votes and the United Force, 885.

The PPP/C was awarded 32 seats, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) 26, and the Alliance For Change (AFC) 7, giving the incumbent a minority government with an opposition-controlled majority in the parliament. The United Force (TUF) was not awarded any seat in the 65 member legislature.

Slothfulness

After some delay, the PPP/C had earlier called on Gecom to immediately release preliminary results as the level of tension was beginning to rise in the country.

However, GECOM chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally urged citizens to be patient with the slothfulness of the announcement of the preliminary results stating that they must verify the numbers with the hard copies of the Statements of Polls (SOP) from around the country.

According to Dr Surujbally, “Gecom cannot sacrifice exactitude and thoroughness nor can they compromise their efficiency on the altar of expediency to produce the elections results.”

“The hard copy of the Statement of Poll is what counts…telephone results coming in from the various polling stations all over Guyana is not something that we can accept, neither will we use that…We have a process where, as the Statements of Poll arrive, it is logged in and verified, the individual Statement of Poll that comes in is scanned then verified…This is being done by Commissioners themselves…this is to ensure a high degree of accuracy,” he told reporters.

Surujbally also said that this rigorous process of verification is not to reinvent the wheel but, rather, to ensure that there is exactness in the result so that, when the results would have been issued, no one can say that there were irregularities.

Meanwhile, Mr Ramotar will be sworn in as Guyana’s next executive president shortly, after which he would be expected to name his Cabinet.

Ramotar was born on October 22, 1950 in the village of Caria Caria on the Essequibo River, to Sam Ramotar and Olive Constantine. His father was a timber grant operator and his mother a housewife. He is the fourth child of nine.

Ramotar received his primary education at Caria Caria Congregational School and the St. Andrew’s Primary School. He later pursued studies at the Government Technical Institute and went on to become a graduate of the Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Guyana. He also pursued studies in political science at what was then the Soviet Union.

Ramotar began his working life on his father’s timber grant. Then between 1966 and 1975 he worked at GIMPEX, the commercial arm of the PPP. In 1975, he was appointed manager of Freedom House, a position that he held for eight years. From 1983 to 1988, he served as a member of the editorial council of the magazine ‘Problems of Peace and Socialism’, and as the international secretary of GAWU between 1988 and 1993.

Having joined the PPP in 1967, he has played a leadership role in 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; a position he still holds today.

The stalwart has had extensive experience within the party and has represented the party on numerous occasions overseas. He has published a number of articles and is a regular columnist for the Mirror newspaper. He was also a member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and a Bureau member of that organization, and a serving member of Guyana’s National Assembly since 1992.

Ramotar is the husband of Deolatchmee Ramotar, and father of three.