French Guiana Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Official name: Department of French Guiana

Type: overseas department and region of France; represented by one deputy in French National Assembly and one senator in French Senate

Capital: Cayenne

Political subdivisions: 2 arrondissements, 19 communes each with a locally elected municipal council

Legal system: French legal system; highest court is Court of Appeals based in Martinique with jurisdiction over Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana

Branches: executive: Prefect appointed by Paris; legislative—popularly elected 16-member General Council and a Regional Council composed of members of the local General Council and of the locally elected deputy and senator to the French parliament; judicial, under jurisdiction of French judicial system

Government leader: Bernard COURTOIS, Prefect of the Republic (since 1984)

Suffrage: universal over age 18

Elections: General Council elections normally are held every five years; last election February 1983

Political parties and leaders: Guianese Socialist Party (PSG), Raymond Tarcy (senator), Leopold Helder; Union of the Guianese People (UPG), weak leftist party allied with and reported to have been absorbed by the PSG; Rally for the Republic (RPR), Hector Rivierez

Communists: Communist party membership negligible  ·

Member of: WFTU

NOTE: The information regarding French Guiana on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of French Guiana 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about French Guiana 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.