Guyana’s president leads following general election in country awash in oil and gas wealth
Guyana’s president leads following general election in country awash in oil and gas wealth
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, who has poured some of the South American country’s new oil wealth into popular social programs, is poised to serve a second term after this week’s election, according to preliminary results Friday.
Guyana’s electoral commission said that despite ongoing recounts following Tuesday’s election, preliminary results show the governing Indo-dominated People’s Progressive Party in the lead with some 35 of 65 seats up for grabs in Parliament. In second place is a new party, We Invest in Nationhood, which for the first time has pushed Guyana’s Afro-supported main opposition party, A Partnership for National Unity, to third place.
Guyana’s electoral commission has said that ongoing recounts demanded by WIN and the APNU have delayed official results, but that those should be finalized by Saturday.
Meanwhile, Ali’s office has already sent out official invites for a swearing-in ceremony scheduled for Sunday.
Ali, a 45-year-old urban planner, has overseen multiple construction projects, including hospitals and highways, since the discovery of major oil deposits off Guyana’s coast a decade ago. His administration expects to start offering free college tuition this month. He also has pledged to increase the monthly minimum wage, more than double pensions to $500 for people 65 and older and cut power bills in half by next year.
Guyana, a country of some 850,000 people, has around 757,000 eligible voters. Turnout for Tuesday’s election was 52%, compared with 70% in the 2020 election.
A new party with a U.S.-sanctioned leader
Azruddin Mohamed, a 38-year-old wealthy businessman, is the leader of WIN, Guyana’s newest party.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Mohamed, his father, their gold-exporting company and a government official “for their roles in public corruption” in a bribery scheme that authorities said ran from 2019 to 2023. Mohamed has denied the accusations, which did not appear to influence voters.
Mohamed’s party, formed in May, is set to become Guyana’s main opposition party after just three months in active politics. It picked up some 17 of 65 seats in Parliament, surging ahead of A Partnership for National Unity, the main player in a coalition that ruled the country from 2015 to 2020. The APNU appears to be on course to win around 11 seats, a drop of nearly 20 seats from the 2020 elections.
Mark Kirton, a retired international relations professor from the University of the West Indies, said the APNU failed to form a solid coalition, allowing WIN to target poor communities and working-class people that the APNU once represented.
“Mohamed de-intellectualized politics. He did not worry about things like fiscal policies and GDP,” Kirton said. “He addressed the needs of poor people with cash and other gifts and appealed to youth. In the absence of any counter, that kind of approach must resonate with voters.”
More than 100,000 voters, many of them young Guyanese, chose Mohamed, ignoring warnings from U.S. and Guyanese government officials to avoid contact with him because of his troubles.
‘You just have to be creative’
Speaking to reporters earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador Nicole Theriot said the Trump administration would find ways of dealing with Mohamed if and when he enters Parliament.
“You just have to be creative in ways to work around it,” she said. “We wouldn’t be able to work directly with Mr. Mohamed in any sort of transaction or financial situation, but we will be able to work with other parliamentarians and other people.”
In recent months, authorities have shuttered all of Mohamed’s businesses, including a gold purchasing and exporting firm and a foreign exchange dealership. They also have disarmed his extensive security system that had protected the family’s gold mining operations. Meanwhile, commercial banks have closed all his personal and company accounts. Still, the party campaigned to rave reviews, winning two districts outright in a move expected to bring a fresh wave of lawmakers.
Mohamed is likely to be the new opposition leader when Parliament convenes later this month.
By BERT WILKINSON
Associated Press
