Belize part of CARICOM Guyana mission

Long anticipated elections were today held in Guyana and while the polls have closed, counting is expected to go on well into the night. Representing Belize on the CARICOM observer mission is Chief Elections Officer Myrtle Palacio. The team monitored the preparation for the polling, the voting itself and will also assess the outcome and its immediate effect on Guyanese society. The ruling People’s Progressive Party-Civic coalition faced off against it chief rival, the People’s National Movement as well as nine other smaller parties. The elections held in 1998 were marked by widespread irregularities in both registration, voting and counting. Today’s balloting, a year and a half before elections are legally due, is the result of a compromise brokered by CARICOM after civil unrest in the wake of the last election.

In voting closer to home, thirty-four villages and communities held council elections on Sunday. According to the Ministry of Rural Development and Culture, voter turnout was impressive and the balloting went smoothly. Elections continue over the next three Sundays in the remainder of the nation’s one hundred and ninety-two villages.