Editorial

On June 6, when Barcelona face Juventus in the UEFA Champions league final in Berlin’s Olympiastadion, millions of fans around the world will gather to watch the match in communal settings like pubs and sports bars.

As the dust settles following the May 11 elections and their tension-filled aftermath, a few ironic comparisons with 1992 have not gone unnoticed.

1992 saw the return of free and fair elections to Guyana.

In just under two months after the Israeli general elections were held, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu whose Likud Party party won the largest number of seats – 30, in the country’s 120-seat parliament − has been able to able to cobble together a bare majority of 61 seats to retain leadership of the Government of Israel.

In defeat the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) could have asked for no better opportunity to depart the political centre stage on a dignified note, to make itself an integral part of the start of a process designed to help repair a political landscape blighted by an unending power struggle.

Congratulations are in order for President Granger and the APNU+AFC coalition on their electoral victory.

What happened prior to the official declaration of results yesterday was both unnecessary as well as undignified.

Even when there are peaceful political transitions, many societies take years to absorb the complex aftermath of elections that displace longstanding governments.

The country has spent the best part of this week waiting to exhale, with rising tensions and most of the citizenry fit to burst, not to mention the stress placed on children taking CXC papers (and their parents), and the general loss of productivity suffered by the nation.

On Monday of this week, Guyana voted in general and regional elections that were the culmination of a series of unfortunate events: secret deals made by the government, deadlock on issues in Parliament, a proposed motion of no-confidence and the proroguing of Parliament being chief among them.

The British elections having resulted in a fairly decisive victory for the Conservative Party, the country’s neighbours and partners in the European Union will now be bracing themselves for the referendum on the country’s membership, promised by Prime Minister David Cameron.

The period immediately preceding yesterday’s general election was marked by a surfeit of incidents of violent crime.

Today, we repeat some of the appeals we have made at previous general elections.

Guyanese go to the polls tomorrow following what must be the most divisive and discordant campaign since free and fair elections returned to this country.

Last month the BBC broadcast a Newsnight election debate with a young, long-shot candidate from the Scottish Nationalist Party.

Tension, apprehension, fear, anger, excitement and hope are all jostling for space in the nation’s psyche.

The international charity, Save the Children releases an annual report titled ‘State of the World’s Mothers’ in which it looks at the best and worst places in the world to be a mother.

As Trinidad & Tobago moves into election mode (the last elections were held on May 26th 2010), Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar’s government seems to have been surprised by the most recent survey of the economy by the international agency Moody’s (as reported in this newspaper last week) which has downgraded the country’s credit rating from stable to negative.

By prevaricating on the removal of Dr. Bheri Ramsaran from his Cabinet after the former Health Minister had publicly and verbally abused rights activist Sherlina Nageer in Berbice then, following his patently insincere apology, done so again at another forum, immediately after, President Donald Ramotar did neither his own public image nor that of his government any favours.

By its shadowy and opaque standards of governance cemented over the last 15 years or so, it came as no surprise that the PPP government stealthily signed a deal with a local contractor to “rehabilitate” the controversial fibre optic cable project.