An Overview of Electoral Change in the English-Speaking Caribbean into the 21st Century

• Author: Cynthia Barrow-Giles
• Pages: 1-8

An Overview of Electoral Change in the English-Speaking Caribbean 1

Introduction

The widely held view of the Commonwealth Caribbean as a region

which has been able to sustain a consistent record of commitment

to democracy, ‘free and fair’ elections and open party electoral

competition,1 despite the challenges of poverty and under development,

has not been sullied in the period into the early twenty-first century.

Indeed, the global phenomenon of democratization which was

experienced in the wake of the collapse of communism in the USSR

and Eastern Europe, and with the onset of ‘political conditionalities’

as an adjunct to financial support from the international lending

agencies and developed countries, have been coterminous with a

deepening of democracy throughout the Caribbean.

During the period 1990 to 2005, all the countries of the

Commonwealth Caribbean held elections in line with the existing

constitutional arrangements, with the participation of all the major

parties in the respective territories. This lies in stark contrast to the

period of the 1950s to the 1980s where a number of departures from

established democratic practice can be identified. Thus, in 1953

Guyana experienced a suspension of its constitution and a nullification

of its first election under Universal Adult Suffrage by the British

government, due to the latter’s displeasure with the choice of the

AN OVERVIEW OF ELECTORAL CHANGE

IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN

INTO THE 21ST CENTURY

CHAPTER 1