E/CN.4/2004/18/Add.1 page 11 Peter d’Aguiar, were the main instigators of the strike, which brought about the downfall of Cheddi Jagan. It is thought that at least 700 people (out of a population of 700,000) were killed in 1964 during these political and social upheavals. The racial polarization still so characteristic of political and social life in Guyana dates back to that period. 21. Some historians attribute the lasting split between Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese to external factors linked to the cold war. They suggest that, before granting independence to Guyana, the British colonial Power, fearing - in the light of Fidel Castro’s triumph and the adoption of communism in Cuba - that the Marxist-oriented PPP and Cheddi Jagan would allow communism to make further inroads in the Americas, replaced the first-past-the-post electoral system, under which the PPP would have won with the support of Indo-Guyanese voters, by a proportional representation system. The electoral reform enabled Burnham and the PNC to form an alliance with the Portuguese party, United Force, and take power in the 1964 elections even though the PPP obtained a majority of votes. Burnham and the PNC remained in control authoritarian control, according to some analysts - from 1964 to 1992, enabling the Afro-Guyanese to become dominant in the civil service, the army and the police force. PNC sympathizers obtained financial favours, notably under the company nationalization programme launched in 1970. 2. Impact of racial polarization on economic and social life 22. Where political relationships are determined by racial divides, racial polarization expresses itself in, and filters perception of, action by the State authorities, personal interaction, the discourse and experience of the members of the various communities, and the geographical distribution of members of those communities. The ethnic distribution of power within the hierarchy and the allocation of national resources to the various regions of the country are equally instructive when analysing the politico-racial situation. Generally speaking, when the PPP is in power, the measures it takes to distribute goods and services are perceived and experienced by Afro-Guyanese as attempts to marginalize them; while, when the PNC was in power, the Indo-Guyanese ascribed its initiatives to nepotism and exclusion. 23. Travelling east along the Atlantic coast towards Suriname, calling at some of the towns and villages between Georgetown and New Amsterdam, the Special Rapporteur noted a clear lack of any integration or interaction between the communities. Racial polarization was especially striking between Buxton, a village of Afro-Guyanese that strongly asserts its Afro-Guyanese identity, and the Indo-Guyanese Lusignan. Similarly, an examination of the ethnic map of Guyana’s 10 regions reveals that the majority of Afro-Guyanese live in regions 4 (Georgetown), 7 and 10, while the Indo-Guyanese are in a majority in regions 2, 3, 5 and 6. This ethno-demographic distribution across the country and within towns is partly explained by historical factors relating chiefly to the economy and to the 1962-1964 racial confrontations. 24. It is generally recognized that the Indo-Guyanese dominate trade, services and rice production and sales. The Afro-Guyanese are in a majority in the civil service, the army, the police and State corporations, as well as in craft work in gold and other precious metals. 25. It is the intricate relationship between demography and the ethnic and political divide that gives rise to Guyana’s basic democratic dilemma: democracy in Guyana cannot be a matter of mere electoral arithmetic but, if all the communities are to play an effective part in running the