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Russia’s election mirrors Guyana’s
A minority government may not be such a bad thing-Ambassador Smirnov
The dilemma of Guyana fielding a minority government in Parliament may after all not be such a bad thing.
A few countries have the same situation and they are doing pretty well. There may be lessons to learn and with the stakeholders having an input, Guyana can ultimately win.
Nikolay Smirnov
This is according to Nikolay Smirnov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Guyana.
Last week Guyana held its General and Regional Elections with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) announcing the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) as the party winning the largest bloc of votes. However, PPP/C for the first time since 1992 failed to secure the majority 51 per cent which would have allow it control of Parliament.
On Sunday, the Russian Federation held its own elections for Parliament.
It is much different yet similar in some ways, the Ambassador said yesterday, while updating media on the elections in his country.
The challenges there are enormous. There are nine time zones in that country. As of yesterday, the voting was still on. About 65 million Russians would have already cast their ballot at 11:00 hours yesterday although the process started since Sunday- which makes it about 60.2 per cent of all eligible voters.
While four political parties and groups were involved in the Guyana elections, there were seven registered by Russia’s Central Elections Commission (CEC).
After counting more than 96 per cent of ballots and according to the preliminary results announced by the CEC, United Russia received 49.54 per cent of votes, Communist Party of the Russian Federation – 19.19 per cent, Fair Russia – 13.22 per cent, Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia – 11.65 per cent. The remaining three parties did not obtain enough votes to pass the seven per cent margin to be represented in the Parliament.
According to the results the composition of the Parliament (450 seats), United Russia got 238 seats; Communist Party of the Russian Federation – 92 seats; Fair Russia – 64 seats; Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia – 56 seats.
Similar to Guyana, Russia’s Parliament is elected for a five-year term.
These elections were held in all 83 regions of the Russian Federation as well as abroad. Votes were cast in 94,864 polling stations and in 376 polling stations in foreign countries. About two percent of votes were cast electronically with almost 700 foreign observers involved in the process.
Elections in Russia were covered by more than 1600 journalists from 175 domestic and foreign mass media and information agencies.
In Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, 63 Russian citizens voted, the Russian Ambassador disclosed during a press conference at his office on the voting.
The ballots were cast at the Russian Embassy in Kitty and at Aroaima bauxite site, Region Ten, which is partly-owned by Russians, and at Matthew’s Ridge, Region One.
Smirnov acknowledged yesterday that there were challenges with the voting.
In Guyana, where Russians working and living here were allowed to vote, the counted ballots are handled by a special body appointed to monitor the process. To protect the votes, the Russian Embassy here sent the information of the voting results through its Venezuela and New York offices using emails, faxes and other secure means.
According to the Ambassador, unlike Guyana, Russia had to contend with challenges like below zero weather and heavy snow.
He was upbeat by the reality that Guyana did have an election and that there are possibilities to form a government and Parliament.
Regarding the call for a recount of some ballots boxes by the APNU, the diplomat drew reference to the 2000 challenge in the US mounted against the Republican’s George Bush, Jr. That recounting process took more than three months and it did not prove much different.
The current situation in Guyana may more lend itself for opposition stakeholders to have more say and for opportunities even for compromise.
Russia is now moving to introduce electronic voting which makes it possible for results to be known the same day.
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