A multiracial opposition party has won the elections in the small South American country of Guyana. It brings to an end 23 years of rule by the Indo-Guyanese dominated People Progressive party, or PPP.

CCTV America’s Stephen Gibbs filed this report from the capital, Georgetown.

Preliminary election results in Guyana show David Arthur Granger and his Partnership for National Unity-Alliance for Change Coalition got nearly 207,000 votes in Monday’s general elections.

The long-governing People’s Progressive Party had almost 201,500 votes, chief elections officer Keith Lowenfield said.

The current President Donald Ramotar, however, rejected the results and said his party is demanding a full recount.

But international observers, monitoring the elections, have declared that they saw no significant irregularities.

“Overall around the country, all ten regions, you had a pretty smooth process,” said Jason Calder, assistant director of the Carter Center, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit policy organization.

Voters have been asked to be patient before the formal declaration is made. But, in the opposition stronghold, patience is running out.

“We need a change. We need a change. We need a change, or people are suffering alone and dying alone and suffering alone,” said a Guyanese.

The preliminary result is a significant change for this country, where race and politics have long been intimately intertwined.

For the last 23 years, the People’s Progressive Party, the PPP has been in power. Its supporters are almost entirely Guyanese of Indian descent.

The opposition draws most of its support from Afro Guyanese communities. But it won this election by forming a coalition, and successfully attracting some Indian voters.

Story by CCTV America and the Associated Press.