The Case of Guyana

Guyana's 2006 general and regional elections were the first in recent history un-marred by post-election violence.   The polls of 1992, 1997 and 2001 were each followed by several months of heightened insecurity, injuries and deaths from public violence and ethnically motivated attacks on citizens, and loss of property to arson, provoking fears of a return to the ethnic rioting that killed hundreds in the 1960s.   The non-violent response to the 2006 outcome was generally unexpected and some believe it could herald more peaceful coexistence in a country long divided by ethnicity and politics.   International actors and the behavior of the major political parties played important roles in this historic outcome, but the rejection of violence by ordinary Guyanese was critical.  

The period leading up to the elections was marked by deep political polarization, growing criminal violence, breakdown of law and order, and increasing tensions and inter-communal violence between Guyanese of East Indian and African descent.    The government, opposition parties and international community were involved in several high-level attempts to defuse tensions.  In addition, several peacebuilding interventions at the grassroots and civil society levels were launched, many in the context of the newly-formed Ethnic Relations Commission and the UN Social Cohesion Program.  These efforts were diverse, extensive and sustained for three years leading up to the election and are believed to have had an important impact.

How did the various citizen-based peacebuilding initiatives before, during, and after the elections contribute to the non-violent electoral outcome?   What were the dynamics within groups and communities faced with the option of violent action?  How were government officials and political parties influenced by the peacebuilding initiatives?  Are Guyanese sustaining and consolidating the gains of the 2006 elections?  This research is intended to shed some light on these questions using key informant interviews and focus groups in several communities around the country.

Researcher: Roxanne Myers

Roxanne Myers has been a lecturer at the University of Guyana since 2000. During her tenure she served as assistant dean in the Faculty of Social Sciences from 2002 to 2003 and forward planner for the University's Democratization and Conflict Resolution community outreach project. She was the workshop facilitator for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs "Increasing Women's Political Participation" series from 2001 to 2003 and consulted for a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded project by Management Services International to assess democracy and governance in Guyana in 2002 and 2007. Myers also served the Guyana Elections Commission as the project coordinator for the Media Monitoring Unit in 2001. She holds a master's degree in Gender and Peace Building from the University for Peace, San Jose, Costa Rica, where she earned the Rector's Award for Excellence. From 2005 to 2006 she was a senior fellow at the United States Institute for Peace, Washington, D.C., where her project focused on “Transforming Ethnopolitical Conflict in Guyana.” Recently she co-authored a post-election study “From Violent to Peaceful Elections: A Preliminary Look at Peacebuilding Initiatives in Guyana,” after Guyana’s first non-violent election outcome in 2006.