Guyana’s Government Falls in No-Confidence Vote

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/22/world/americas/guyana-government-falls.html

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Guyana’s fragile multiracial coalition government fell after a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly late Friday, setting off a general election campaign nearly two years before President David A. Granger’s constitutional term is complete.

The surprise collapse comes less than four years after a coalition of Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese politicians, promising a new style of inclusive politics, defeated a party that had held power for more than two decades.

A retired military commander, Mr. Granger has had trouble controlling a fractious cabinet and has been slow in putting together a regulatory and environmental framework to prepare the country for the first commercial production of oil, scheduled in 2020.

The discovery of oil by Exxon Mobil off Guyana’s Atlantic coast in recent years promises to transform the economy of the English-speaking South American country of 750,000 people. But even advisers to the government have warned that with the county’s history of corruption, Guyana risks squandering billions of dollars in annual revenue from taxes and royalties.

The ruling coalition lost the no-confidence vote after the switch in allegiance of a single lawmaker belonging to the junior party in the coalition.

“This is a conscious vote,” said the lawmaker, Charandass Persaud. “We are sitting in Parliament as yes men. We have not blended.”

In Friday’s dramatic parliamentary session, stunned members of the government coalition shouted at Mr. Persaud to switch his vote but he repeatedly refused. He was escorted out of the chamber through a back entrance by the police for security reasons.

Moses Nagamootoo, the prime minister, conceded the loss, saying, “The outcome has to be accepted.”

The vote puts the cohesion of the governing coalition in jeopardy, and increases the likelihood that the opposition People’s Progressive Party, best known by its acronym P.P.P., will win the next election, which must be held by March. The P.P.P. performed strongly in recent local elections.

Mr. Granger, 73, whose health has been failing, has promised to fight corruption but critics fault him for moving slowly. His government raised teacher salaries, increased funding for the national university and eased flooding in the capital, Georgetown, by upgrading the city pumping system.

But after promising a new style of politics, Mr. Granger failed to reach out effectively to the P.P.P., a predominately Indo-Guyanese party, as the Afro-Guyanese members of his coalition continued to taunt the opposition.

“The next several months will be a stress test for Guyana’s democratic institutions and social cohesion” said Jason Calder, a former representative of the Carter Center in Guyana.