The "Peaceful and Credible" Elections

Well, I survived the elections. Which, I must say, was surprisingly easy. Since 1992, every election has been followed by violence, mostly in Georgetown, but also in other parts of Guyana. So why should this one be different? Well, it was. There was pretty much no violence at all. Everyone seemed to be sitting on edge, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did. There seems to be two main reasons. First off, the PPP/C ruling party won in a "landslide" (as they say) victory of 54%. The main opposition party, the PNC-R, took in about 30% I think. In the past, they would have then claimed fraud, not accepted the results, and protests and riots would have ensued. Except this time, the PNC-R accepted the results. So there was no political calls to boycott the results, thereby giving cover for mischief and rioting. Secondly, it seems the people of Guyana did not care this time. Of those eligible to vote, only about 64% turned out, an all time low. There are some questions as to whether that number was low because people have moved to America but are still on the voter rolls (and you must be in country to vote). But even that could not account for the drop in turnout. So I think people just didn't care. And people who don't care are not about to start burning the capital.

So the elections were safe. As the state television station keeps telling us, they were "peaceful and credible." So that's nice. And all our worrying about getting evacuated to America or wherever was unfounded. So life is back to normal here. I'll write more when I get a chance. I hope everyone is well!