NOMINATION DAY AND POLL PUT GUYANA ELECTIONS INTO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GEORGETOWN 000743 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS WHA/CAR WHA/OAS SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM GY SUBJECT: NOMINATION DAY AND POLL PUT GUYANA ELECTIONS INTO FOCUS REF: GEORGETOWN 724 ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Georgetown was boisterous on July 26 Nomination Day as the political parties -- arriving in turns to the tune of chanting supporters and Caribbean music -- presented their candidate lists to the Chief Election Officer at City Hall. A less than expected total of eleven parties appeared, only six of which have a realistic shot at winning seats in the National Assembly on August 28. Independent poll results released the same day show the PPP/C in line to win the presidency again but short of recapturing an outright majority in the National Assembly. END SUMMARY. -------------- Six Parties Capable of Winning Seats -------------- ¶2. (U) Nomination Day went off with hardly a hitch July 26. Eleven parties appeared at Georgetown's City Hall to present their candidate lists for Guyana's August 28 national and regional elections, much fewer than the thirty-plus parties that had attended Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) preparatory meetings. Following are snapshots of the six parties capable of winning National Assembly seats. Five other parties presented candidates but are not expected to contest the election on a national level. ¶3. (SBU) People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Presidential candidate: Bharrat Jagdeo Prime Minister candidate: Samuel Hinds Seats won in 2001: 34 Rumors abound that current PM Hinds, despite being named as Prime Ministerial candidate, does not intend to continue in the government, preferring assignment as Ambassador to Ottawa. One rumored successor, Geology and Mines Commissioner Robeson Benn, appears on the candidate list. Moses Nagamootoo, a charismatic and well-liked PPP veteran who publicly split with the party in 2005, has returned to the fold and appears on the list. Attorney-General Doodnauth Singh, who recently received emergency medical treatment in the U.S., is not on the list. Nor is 85 year-old PPP co-founder and former President Janet Jagan. ¶4. (SBU) One Guyana People's National Congress Reform (OG/PNCR) Presidential candidate: Robert Corbin Prime Minister candidate: To be announced July 30 at a campaign kick-off rally -- unclear whether OG/PNCR has even decided yet who it will be. 2001 PM candidate Stanley Ming, founder of the party's Reform wing and said to have recently resigned from the PNCR's Central Executive, is not on the list. Seats won in 2001: 27 Corbin is leading a party with an image problem and little time to correct it before elections. The ungainly OG/PNCR acronym made its first appearance on Nomination Day. The PNCR had been scrambling to decide just who would join their camp to contest elections. The "One Guyana" part of the platform includes the small National Front Alliance party (received 0.1 percent of the vote in 2001),unnamed unions, and unnamed civic organizations. It seems unlikely that this amalgamation will boost the PNCR's appeal at the ballot box. What the PNCR can still boast is a core of fervent supporters, as evidenced when they broke through the security gate and filled City Hall's courtyard just before the six o'clock deadline for submitting candidate lists. This is the same time that large PNCR groups have been known to rush polling stations demanding to vote just before closing on election day. The symmetry was not lost on Guyanese who observed the scene. ¶5. (U) Alliance For Change (AFC) Presidential candidate: Raphael Trotman Prime Minister candidate: Khemraj Ramjattan Seats won in 2001: n/a GEORGETOWN 00000743 002 OF 003 The seven-month old AFC's candidate list, tilted to youth and unproven politicians below the three co-leaders, did not contain any big surprises. Some expected to see high-profile defectors from other parties on the list. ¶6. (SBU) Justice For All Party (JFAP) Presidential candidate: C. N. Sharma Prime Minister candidate: Geoffrey Sankies Seats won in 2001: 0 TV-station owner and muckraking newsman Sharma is one of Guyana's most recognizable and popular figures. Although the elite disparage his Creolese dialect, poorer Guyanese gravitate to his man-of-the-people demeanor. Sharma thought he had won a National Assembly seat in 2001 but a recalculation showed he lost it by only a few votes. The GoG took Sharma's TV channel off the air during the January 2005 floods because it deemed his news broadcasts too critical of the government's response to the disaster. ¶7. (U) Guyana Action Party/Rise Organize And Rebuild (GAP/ROAR) Presidential candidate: Paul Hardy, GAP leader Prime Minister candidate: Ravi Dev, ROAR leader Seats won in 2001: GAP/WPA 2, ROAR 1 GAP and ROAR are all that remain of the "big tent" concept for a coalition of smaller opposition parties to run together. Hardy's constituency is among the Amerindian communities in Guyana's hinterland. Dev draws his support from rural Indo-Guyanese. ¶8. (U) The United Force (TUF) Presidential candidate: Manzoor Nadir Prime Minister candidate: Michael Abraham Seats won in 2001: 1 Nadir is Minister of Tourism, Industry, and Commerce in the PPP/C government, but will contest the election independently. -------------- Notably Absent -------------- ¶9. (SBU) A few small parties that had been expected to run have pulled out of the election. The Working People's Alliance (WPA) announced July 25 that it would boycott the elections. The party joined forces with GAP in 2001 and won two seats. The WPA was an instrumental part of the Marxist anti-PNC government movement in the 1970s and 1980s, but has become less relevant in recent years, too academic, and its constituency has dwindled -- it may not be back. Neither the Unity Party (led by Joey Jagan, son of former President and PPP leader Cheddi Jagan) nor Amcit businessman Peter Ramsaroop's Vision Guyana -- one-man outfits that failed to latch onto a coalition -- will contest the 2006 election. -------------- Independent Poll Results -------------- ¶10. (U) The North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) released the results of its latest opinion poll July ¶26. NACTA is unique in having a proven track record of political polling in Guyana, and the results carry more weight than those of political parties' own polls. NACTA conducted face-to-face interviews of approximately 2,180 persons throughout the country. The racial composition of the sample closely mirrored the most recent census data. ¶11. (U) Poll results -- support for political parties: PPP/C: 42 percent (won 53 percent in 2001) PNCR: 29 percent (won 42 percent in 2001) AFC: 13 percent JFAP: 5 percent (won 1 percent in 2001) GAP/ROAR: 1 percent TUF: 1 percent (won 1 percent in 2001) Other/undecided: 9 percent GEORGETOWN 00000743 003 OF 003 -------------- Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Although the mood was mostly festive and peaceful during Nomination Day, the aggressive last-minute arrival of the PNCR contingent exposed an inability or unwillingness on the part of the PNCR leaders to curb the energy of their most fervent supporters. Unfortunately, this is a sign that the mob activity which traditionally mars Guyanese elections is not a thing of the past. The question remains how serious it will be. ¶13. (U) Comment continued: The NACTA poll results reinforce the conventional wisdom that the PPP/C's ability to secure an outright majority is in doubt and that the AFC (or even the JFAP) is poised to win enough seats to act as balance of power. This outcome would usher in a new era of coalition government. The election is shaping up to be the closest and least predictable in Guyana's history, which only gives the major parties more incentive to resort to crude campaign tactics over the next thirty days. End comment. THOMAS