Above: Guyana President Donald Ramotar

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Guyana will be choosing its next government on May 11, President Donald Ramotar announced in an address to the country.

The announcement comes after Ramotar prorogued Parliament in November, a move he said came as he said he was “attempting to avoid further political conflict and was seeking avenues of political accommodation, between my government and the Parliamentary Opposition parties.”

Ramotar was elected in Guyana’s December 2011 elections.

The President said he would invite international observers to be part of the process.

“I will expect the political parties, the security services and the people of Guyana to conduct themselves in a manner that would ensure continued peace and stability before, during and after the elections,” he said. “We have a collective obligation (every Guyanese) to ensure the protection of the democratic gains we have made and for which we have endured so much as a nation to secure.”