General elections were held in Guyana on 28 November 2011. The result was a victory for the People's Progressive Party, which won 32 of the 65 seats.Guyana governing party's Donald Ramotar wins election
BBC News, 1 December 2011 Thus even though the combined parliamentary opposition, consisting of the

A Partnership for National Unity A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is a left-wing political alliance in Guyana. History The APNU was formed in July 2011 in order to contest the 2011 general elections,Commonwealth Secretariat (2012)l. ''Guyana National and Regional Ele ...

coalition (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC), managed to secure an absolute majority of 33 seats, as they had not run as a single list it was

Donald Ramotar Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar (born 22 October 1950) is a Guyanese politician who was President of Guyana from 2011 to 2015. He was also the General Secretary of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) from 1997 to 2013. Political career Ramotar jo ...

of the PPP (the largest single party) who assumed the presidency, and not David A. Granger of the PNC (which heads the opposition).

Electoral system

The 65 members of the National Assembly were elected by closed list

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

in two groups; 25 members were elected from the 10 electoral districts based on the

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, and 40 elected from a single nationwide constituency.Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group - GUYANA NATIONAL AND REGIONAL ELECTIONS, 28 November 2011
/ref> Seats were allocated using the Hare quota. The

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

was elected by a

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

double simultaneous vote Double simultaneous vote (DSV) is an electoral system in which multiple offices – such as the president and members of a legislature – are elected through a single vote cast for a party. It can be combined with other electoral systems; in Uru ...

system, whereby each list nominated a presidential candidate and the presidential election itself was won by the candidate of the list having a plurality.

Presidential candidates

The ruling People's Progressive Party nominated

, the party's general secretary and advisor to outgoing President

Bharrat Jagdeo Bharrat Jagdeo (born 23 January 1964) is a Guyanese politician who has been serving as Vice President of Guyana since 2020, in the administration of President Irfaan Ali. He had previously also held the office from 1997 until 1999, during the pr ...

. A Partnership for National Unity (an alliance of the People's National Congress, the Guyana Action Party and the

Working People's Alliance The Working People's Alliance is a democratic socialist political party in Guyana. It was a consultative member of Socialist International until 2005. History The WPA was established in 1974, as an alliance of the Working People's Vanguard Par ...

)About APNU
APNU nominated David A. Granger, a former commander of the

Guyana Defence Force The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) is the military of Guyana, established in 1965. It has military bases across the nation. The Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Force is always the incumbent President of Guyana. History The GDF was formed on 1 Nov ...

. The Alliance for Change did not join the APNU, and opted to run alone, fielding party leader

Khemraj Ramjattan Khemraj Ramjattan (born 12 October 1960) is a Guyanese politician and one of the founders of Alliance for Change.http://parliament.gov.gy/new2/about-parliament/parliamentarian/khemraj-ramjattan From May 2015 to August 2020, he served as Minis ...

as its presidential candidate.

The United Force The United Force is a conservative and economically liberal political party in Guyana. It currently has no representation in the National Assembly and is led by Marissa Nadir. History Established on 5 October 1960 by Peter D'Aguiar, and was i ...

nominated Peter Persaud as its presidential candidates following a leadership dispute.

Police protection

Election Day, November 28 was declared a national holiday and troops patrolled the streets in order to prevent violence as had happened in previous elections.

Results

By region

Aftermath

The PPP won for the fifth straight time, but with a minority government. PPP candidate

was elected President, but the opposition parties won a majority in the National Assembly.

References

2011 2011 elections in South America 2011 in Guyana November 2011 events in South America {{Guyana-stub