Raphael Trotman

Member of Parliament; Party Leader
Alliance for Change, Guyana
Focus Area(s)
Elections
Interviewers
Varanya Chaubey
Country of Reform
Guyana
Town/City
Georgetown
Country
Guyana
Date of Interview
Friday, May 08, 2009
Abstract

Raphael Trotman gives a detailed account of the role of the Alliance for Change party in the 2006 Guyanan elections, which were hailed by the Carter Center as the most peaceful that Guyana ever had. In addition to the mediating force of the AFC in the elections, Trotman credits the United Nations Development Programme, the heavy presence of election observers and the actions of civil society institutions with helping assure peaceful elections. He recognizes the strides the Guyana Elections Commission made in the area of election results, but he tempers that praise with criticism of the organization's partiality in matters concerning funding for the payment of scrutineers (political party-based poll workers), recruitment of poll workers, and ensuing legal battles with the Alliance for Change. Trotman offers a sobering account of results from the 2006 election that were still being contested at the time of the interview.

Case Study:  Cooling Ethnic Conflict Over a Heated Election: Guyana, 2001-2006

Full Interview

60.3MB
Raphael Trotman- Full Interview
Profile

At the time of this interview, Raphael Trotman was a member of the Guyanese Parliament and leader of the Alliance for Change political party. A lawyer by training, Trotman describes himself as "in the middle" racially, with roots in both the East Indian and African ethnic groups that stratify much of the political and social thinking in Guyana. His background in conflict studies and resolution led him to help form the AFC as a third-party alternative to the dominant People's Progressive Party and the People's National Congress.

Keywords
Election Security UN Policies
voter education
media relations
vote counting
codes of conduct
Voter Registration
monitoring
dispute resolution
polling supplies
results declaration
Not specified