President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has called on Guyanese to safeguard the country’s democratic gains as Guyana marks 34 years since the historic Oct. 5, 1992, election, which he described as the rebirth of democracy after almost three decades of disputed elections and political authoritarianism.
In a statement marking the anniversary, Ali said the 1992 election ended a long and painful struggle against successive elections beginning in 1968 that were widely condemned as rigged, as well as economic decline, hardship and the suppression of democratic freedoms.
“October 5 was the day when, after almost three decades, the ballot once again became an instrument through which the Guyanese people could genuinely determine who governed them,” Ali said.
“The Guyanese people did not inherit democracy on October 5, 1992. They fought for it. They suffered for it. They sacrificed for it. And, ultimately, they reclaimed it.”
The President said the struggle extended beyond free and fair elections and was also a fight for economic and social justice, dignity and the fundamental principle that governments derive their legitimacy from the consent of the governed.
Ali said the People’s Progressive Party/Civic played a central role in pressing for electoral reforms, alongside religious organisations, trade unions, workers, civil society groups and other Guyanese at home and abroad.
Those reforms included counting ballots at polling stations instead of transporting them to a central location, creating a new voters’ list through house-to-house enumeration, restructuring the Elections Commission and allowing international and local observers.
The President said the 1992 election itself came under threat when violence erupted outside the Elections Commission headquarters in Georgetown, where stones and bottles were thrown at the building. Violence and looting were also reported in the capital.
“The mob did not defeat the ballot. The violence did not defeat democracy. The past did not defeat the future,” Ali said.
The election continued, the votes were counted and then-President Desmond Hoyte accepted his party’s defeat, clearing the way for a peaceful transfer of power to the PPP/C government led by Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
Ali said the significance of 1992 must also be viewed against the severe economic conditions Guyana faced at the time.
The President said that by 1989, Guyana’s external debt-to-GDP ratio was approximately 925%, while external debt stood at approximately US$1.9 billion, including about US$1.14 billion in arrears owed to international institutions, foreign governments, commercial banks and other creditors.
He also cited figures showing that the external-debt-to-export ratio had reached 951% in 1990 and that average annual debt-service provisioning between 1986 and 1990 amounted to 153% of fiscal revenue.
“These were not merely statistics. Behind every percentage was a human being,” Ali said.
“Behind the debt was a country struggling to pay for the essentials. Behind the arrears were schools, hospitals, roads, water systems and public institutions starved of resources and in a broken state.”
Ali said families struggled as wages lost purchasing power, professionals and young people left Guyana in search of opportunities and public infrastructure and essential services deteriorated.
He also pointed to a Caribbean Conference of Churches fact-finding mission in late 1990, which described Guyana as being in a “state of crisis” and highlighted deteriorating infrastructure, poor water, electricity and telephone services and the exodus of teachers.
The President said he was recalling those conditions not to “reopen old wounds,” but to demonstrate how far Guyana had fallen and the magnitude of the rebuilding effort that followed the restoration of democracy.
Ali argued that the progress achieved since 1992 in infrastructure, education, health, housing, telecommunications, economic activity and social development cannot be separated from the restoration of democratic government.
“Democracy is not an ornament to development. It is one of its foundations,” he said.
Thirty-four years later, Ali said Guyana is experiencing economic growth on a scale that would have been difficult to imagine during the country’s years of economic collapse.
But he warned that prosperity presents another test for the country.
“It is not enough to grow. We must grow together,” Ali said. “It is not enough to build. We must build a society in which every Guyanese feels that there is a place for them.”
The President said his One Guyana agenda is aimed at confronting longstanding ethnic and political divisions and ensuring that development benefits citizens regardless of race, religion, political affiliation, class or geographic location.
He stressed that national unity does not require Guyanese to abandon political differences, but rather to ensure those differences do not prevent agreement on fundamental national interests.
Ali said those shared principles must include protecting democracy, respecting the rule of law, safeguarding Guyana’s territory, ensuring every child has access to opportunity and using the country’s natural wealth to create a better future for generations to come.
He paid tribute to political activists, trade unionists, religious leaders, civic organisations, farmers, fisherfolk, bauxite workers, public servants, nurses, doctors, journalists, lawyers, students, members of the diaspora and others who kept the struggle for democracy alive.
Ali said the greatest tribute Guyanese can pay to those who fought for the restoration of democracy is to protect what they won.
“The men and women who struggled for October 5 did not struggle so that one generation could inherit democracy and another could squander it,” he said.
The President said the anniversary should therefore be both a celebration and a reminder that Guyanese must never again be deprived of their right to freely choose their government.
“October 5 gave us back our vote, our voice, our freedom and it restored hope,” Ali said.
“Let us use that voice to build a country that is truly one people, one nation and one destiny.”