Guyana: No Airy-Fairy Socialist

No "Airy-Fairy" Socialist

The polls had not yet closed last week in Guyana when familiar cries of "fraud" rang out. As in every election in the South American country since it was granted independence from Britain in 1966, opposition politicians and others charged that the polling and the vote count were rigged to favor the ruling People's National Congress. Indeed, the margin of victory was improbably large, with the P.N.C. taking 76% of the vote and six opposition parties dividing the rest. The win gives the P.N.C. 42 of the 53 seats in the national legislature and allows President Hugh Desmond Hoyte, 56, to...

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