Ethnicity in Guyana
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Guyana Ethnicity in Guyana Group selection According to the 2002 census, 43.5% of the population of Guyana are Indo-Guyanese (descendants from East-Indian immigrants), 30,2% are Afro-Guyanese, 16.7% are of mixed ancestry, and 9.2% are Indigenous peoples (Amerindians). Power relations 1966-1991 After independence in 1966, Guyana was ruled in an autocratic man- ner by the People’s National Congress (PNC), a party dominated by Afro-Guyanese people. The PNC regulated the executive recruitment process (2338) and human rights and civil liberties were suppressed. 2338 [Center for Systemic Peace, 2008] Therefore, we code Afro-Guyanese as politically dominant, and the other two groups as powerless. 1992-2015 The first free and fair elections in Guyana took place in 1992. The PNC lost to the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), which is domi- nated by Indo-Guyanese people. Indo-Guyanese are coded as domi- nant. Although the elections in 1997 and 2001 were declared fair and free, there were violent clashes. The most recent elections in 2006 took place without any political violence. Guyana’s government points at the multi-ethnic character of the cabinet (Afro-Guyanese Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary, three Amerindian Minis- ters), but some observers speak of tokenism (e.g. 2339), particu- 2339 [UN Human Rights Council, 2009] larly because these black members of the executive are from the Indo-Guyanese PPP and thus not seen as "true" representatives of the Afro-Guyanese group. Also Birnir (2340, 177) codes the Afro- 2340 [Birnir & van Cott, 2007] Guyanese group as not having had any ethnic representative in the country’s cabinet between 1992 and 2004. Thus, the group is coded as “powerless" since 1992. Various organizations represent the interests of the indigenous peoples, among other the Amerindian’s Peoples Association. For the 2001 elections, indigenous organizations created a political party, captured two seats in parliament and swept local elections in an indigenous-majority region. Although local governments theoretically epr atlas 830 maintain a degree of autonomy, decisions often cannot be made without the consent of the central government. Van Cott (2341, 2341 [Van Cott, 2007] 132) places Guyana in the lowest category within Latin America concerning indigenous rights and the degree of political autonomy in indigenous territories. And although 3 out of 20 cabinet ministers have been indigenous in the period since 2006, it is too little to code them as more than powerless. The 2011 election returned the Indo-Guyanese dominated PPP to the presidency, with a cabinet composition similar to previous administrations (mostly Indo-Guyanese). Although in this election opposition parties, of which the Afro-Guyanese PNP is the largest, won a majority of seats in the legislature, this is still not enough to code the Afro-Guyanese as politically included at the level of exec- utive power. There were no reported changes to the populations of each group – although a census was fielded in 2012, the government had not yet made demographic information on ethnicity available There was no indication that the power status of indigenous peo- ples was altered during the time period, so a new period was not established for them. 2016-2020 After four years of PPP rule without a majority in the legislature and with accusations of corruption, President Ramotar could not ease the pressure on his government but managed to avoid a no- confidence vote. He formally dissolved the legislature and finally announced elections for early 2015 (2342: 2; 2343: 5). 2342 [Freedom House, 2016] The 2015 general elections marked the second change of power 2343 [US AID, 2016] in Guyana’s history: For the last elections in 2011 the PNCR (Peo- ple’s National Congress-Reform) had already formed a coalition with several smaller parties. This time it intended to distance itself even further from the ethnically driven politics of exclusion by the ancient PNC and formed a joint electoral list with the multi-ethnic party "Alliance for Change" (AFC) (2344: 28). The PNCR very narrowly 2344 [US AID, 2016] won the presidency and also maintained majority in the legislature by one seat. Newly elected President David Arthur Granger has pro- moted a multi-ethnic nation and more issue-based politics. Society is becoming more and more ethnically mixed, which is reflected in the cabinet composition with four Indo-Guyanese members, including the prime minister, and two indigenous members (see 2345: 8, 35; 2345 [USDS, 2016] 2346). Because of the winner-takes-all characteristics of Guyana’s 2346 [Worldfolio, 2016] political system, there is still a lot of power in the hands of the pres- ident (2347, 2017; 2348: 17-18). However, his willingness to appoint 2347 [Guyana Times, 2017] members of the Indo-Guyanese population to important government 2348 [US AID, 2016] positions and to break with the permanent ethnic division justifies a coding of power-sharing. Hence, after the elections of May 2015 and according to the January-first-rule, the Afro-Guyanese and Indo- Guyanese groups are coded as “senior partner” and “junior partner”, respectively, since 2016. epr atlas 831 The results of the 2012 census for the different ethnic groups’ population shares are incorporated into this period. This census indicates that 39.83% of the population is Indo-Guyanese (“East In- dian"), 29.25% belongs to the Afro-Guyanese category (“African/Black") and 10.51% is a member of the Indigenous Peoples (“Amerindian") (2349). The remaining population is of Chinese, Mixed, Portuguese 2349 [Bureau of Statistics, 2016] or White origin (2350). 2350 [Bureau of Statistics, 2016] 2021 Elections took place in early 2020 after President David A. Granger lost a vote of no confidence in December 2018 (2351, 2352). Both par- 2351 [Caribbean Chronicle, 2018] ties, the Coalition PNCR, led by former President David Ganger, 2352 [Freedom House, 2020] and PPP, led by Irfaan Ali, declared victory (2353). After a long 2353 [BBC,2020] political deadlock from March to August, which was followed by a series of accusations over election fraud by PNCR, the matter was taken to the High Court, subsequently requiring a vote recount, which ultimately showed that the PPP slightly won the elections by winning 33 out of 65 seats in the Parliament. Finally, five months after the elections, Irfaan Ali of the PPP was sworn in as Presi- dent of Guyana, thus shifting the power again to PPP, which is backed by the largest ethnic group in Guyana, according to the lat- est census of 2012, the Indo-Guyanese (2354). Hence, as of 2021, the 2354 [Reuters, 2020] Indo-Guyanese are “senior partner” and the Afro-Guyanese “junior partner.” Indigenous peoples are still coded as “powerless” since the 2015 elections. Although the indigenous communities receive a consider- able amount of attention from the main parties because of their crit- ical swing-vote role (see 2355: 36), they remain politically marginal- 2355 [US AID, 2016] ized and do not possess significant executive power on the national level (2356: 2, 2357). 2356 [Freedom House, 2016] The very centralized characteristics of Guyana’s political system 2357 [Freedom House, 2020] (see 2358: 15, 49) does not allow for a coding of regional autonomy 2358 [US AID, 2016] for any of the ethnic groups. However, there have been some recent attempts at administrative decentralization, in terms of the local provision of public goods (2359). Although the ten RDC’s (Regional 2359 [Guyana Times, 2019] Development Councils) build a layer of subnational government with the role of supervision over the local authorities, staff - including the executive officer - is centrally appointed (2360: 70; 2361: 26). Fur- 2360 [CLGF, 2016] thermore, in practice local councils very often seek direct permission 2361 [US AID, 2016] by the central government for even the smallest and most local issues (2362: 26). Because the power of the central government is strongly 2362 [US AID, 2016] executed despite existing local government structures, the chair- men of the RDC’s cannot be regarded as to possess actual executive power on the regional level. Even though on paper the indigenous peoples are governed by their own indigenous councils, which in turn are overseen by their own ministry (see 2363: 69), their voice is ig- 2363 [CLGF, 2016] nored on a regular basis when central governmental decisions are implemented against their interest (2364: 2; 2365: 35). 2364 [Freedom House, 2016] 2365 [US AID, 2016] Bibliography [Birnir & van Cott, 2007] Birnir, J. K., & Van Cott, D. L. (2007). Disunity in diversity: Party system fragmentation and the dy- namic effect of ethnic heterogeneity on Latin American legisla- tures. Latin American Research Review, 42(1), 99-125. [Bureau of Statistics, 2002] Bureau of Statistics. (2002). Population & Housing Census 2002 - Guyana Na- tional Report. Retrieved on 17.12.2014 from: http://www.statisticsguyana.gov.gy/census.html [Bureau of Statistics, 2016] Bureau of Statistics. (2016). The Census Road, Compendium 2 - Population Composition. Retrieved on 12.11.2020 from: https://dataspace.princeton.edu/handle/ 88435/dsp01xg94hs43d [BBC,2020] BBC. (2020). Guyana election: Two main parties de- clare victory as tensions rise. Retrieved on 25.2.2021 from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51763283 [Caribbean Chronicle, 2018] Caribbean Chronicle. (2018). Elections in Guyana within 90 days as Granger government loses vote of no confidence 33-32. 22.12.2018. Retrieved on 12.11.2020 from: https://web.archive.org/web/ 20190330143432/http://caribbeanchronicle.org/ elections-in-guyana-within-90-days-as-granger-govt-loses-vote-of-no-confidence-33-32/ [Central Intelligence Agency, 2014] Central Intelligence Agency. (2014). CIA Factbook: Guyana. Retrieved on 17.12.2014 from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/ the-world-factbook/geos/gy.html [Center for Systemic Peace, 2008] Center for Systemic Peace.