Guyana Political Parties
People's National Congress
Billboard promoting progress and the PNC
Courtesy Inter-American Development Bank (David Mangurian)
The PNC was formed in 1957 when Forbes Burnham broke away from
the PPP. The PNC represents the country's Afro-Guyanese community
and many of Guyana's intellectuals. The PNC was the main partner in
the coalition government formed in 1964 and has been the outright
winner of every election held since then. The party held fiftythree seats after the 1980 elections. After the 1985 elections, the
PNC held fifty-four seats in the National Assembly--forty-two
elected seats and all of the twelve appointed seats (see
table 8,
Appendix A). The party came under the leadership of Desmond Hoyte
following the death of Forbes Burnham in 1985
(see Independence and the Burnham Era
, ch. 1).
Ideologically, the PNC has swung from socialism to middle-of-
the-road capitalism several times. Although Burham professed
leftist views, the party originally adopted a procapitalist policy
as an alternative to the PPP's socialism and to attract members of
the Afro-Guyanese middle class. In the mid-1970s, Burnham stated
that the PNC was socialist and committed to the nationalization of
foreign-owned businesses and to government control of the economy.
In the late 1980s, Executive President Hoyte declared that his
predecessor's policies had bankrupted the country and that the PNC
would again encourage private investment.
Data as of January 1992
|