PRECAUTIONS IN GUYANA

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31864, 17 December 1968, Page 21

PRECAUTIONS IN GUYANA

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright? GEORGETOWN, Dec. 16. Policemen and troops are ready for trouble today in Guyana’s first General Election since she gained independence in 1966.

{ The voting comes , after a bitterlyfought campaign marked by opposition accusations that the Prime Minister (Mr Forbes Burnham) and his party were “rigging” overseas balloting. Mr Burnham counterclaimed last week that a plan was afoot to disrupt the votecounting throughout the country. Special security detachments have been sent into the interior of the country "to see that local counting stations are adequately protected.” In Georgetown, policemen have been guarding the candidates of the four contesting parties at campaign meetings because some of them were earlier stoned. Counting begins at 6 p.m. local time and a computer and automatic telephone service will help bring word of the voting trends to the waiting population. Mr Burnham is trying to gain an absolute majority in the National Assembly of 53 seats for his People’s National Congress, a predominantly Negro party with a definite Socialist bias. His main opponent, Dr Cheddi Jagan, an Indian Marxist, leading the People’s Progressive Party, is attempting to regain the power he lost in the last election, in 1964. Third in the four-way contest is Mr Peter d’Aguiar, a businessman of Portuguese descent whose United Force formed a coalition with Mr Bumham’s party in 1964. The coalition was divided recently, and Mr Bumham now says he will no longer tolerate a coalition. The fourth party is the Guyana United Moslem Party, which is not expected to win many more than 1000 votes. About 300,000 people will choose today between the “peace and prosperity” platform of Mr Bumham and the nationalisation programme of Dr Jagan, who is strongly opposed to American policy. But most observers believe the racial element will influence the voters most.

, Few prophesy more than a few seats for Mr d’Aguair’s party, though this may prove enough to thwart Mr Burnham’s drive for a working majority. The percentage of votes won by a party determines its percentage of Assembly seats and these, political observers say, might be anywhere between 29 and 34 for Mr Bumham’s followers.