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53 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly 33 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 461,481 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 88.42% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results by district | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Constitution |
Guyana portal |
General elections were held in Guyana on 15 December 1997. [1] The result was a victory for the People's Progressive Party/Civic, which won 29 of the 53 seats. Voter turnout was 88.4%. [1]
Electoral system
The National Assembly had 65 members; 53 elected by proportional representation in a nationwide constituency, 10 appointed by the Regional Councils elected on the same date as the national members, and 2 appointed by the National Congress of Local Democratic Organs, an umbrella body representing the regional councils. [2] These were the last elections to feature that electoral system, as the electoral law was amended in February 2001 ahead of the elections in March that year. [3]
The President was elected by a first-past-the-post double simultaneous vote system, whereby each list nominated a presidential candidate and the presidential election itself was won by the candidate of the list having a plurality. [2]
Results
| Party | Presidential candidate | Votes | % | Seats | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elected | Appointees | Total | +/– | ||||||
| People's Progressive Party/Civic | Janet Jagan | 220,667 | 55.26 | 29 | 5 | 34 | +2 | ||
| People's National Congress | Desmond Hoyte | 161,901 | 40.55 | 22 | 4 | 26 | –5 | ||
| United Force | Manzoor Nadir | 5,937 | 1.49 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Working People's Alliance– Guyana Labour Party | Rupert Roopnarine | 4,783 | 1.20 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Guyana Democratic Party | Asgar Ally | 2,528 | 0.63 | 0 | 1 | 1 | New | ||
| Good and Green Guyana | Hamilton Green | 1,552 | 0.39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | ||
| Justice for All Party | Chandra N. Sharma | 1,265 | 0.32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | ||
| God Bless Guyana | Hardatt Persaud | 314 | 0.08 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | ||
| National Independent Party | Saphier Husain | 258 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | ||
| National Democratic Front | Joseph Bacchus | 105 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Independents | – | 2 | 2 | +2 | |||||
| Total | 399,310 | 100.00 | 53 | 12 | 65 | 0 | |||
| Valid votes | 399,310 | 97.86 | |||||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 8,747 | 2.14 | |||||||
| Total votes | 408,057 | 100.00 | |||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 461,481 | 88.42 | |||||||
| Source: Nohlen, IPU, Guyana Elections Commission, OAS | |||||||||
References
- ^ a b Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p363 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
- ^ a b "Guyana's new Constitution and the elections of 1980: A case of people's power?", Rajendra Chandisingh
- ^ IPU Parline
