President Irfaan Ali declared victory in Guyana's general and regional elections on Wednesday, stating that his party, the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), won over 240,000 votes and seven of the ten electoral districts. 'The numbers are clear. The people have spoken in an overwhelming way,' Ali told the Guardian, citing results published by the Guyana Elections Commission.
However, official final results have not yet been published, and opposition parties have called for recounts in several districts. The upstart We Invest in Nationhood (Win) party, founded just three months ago by businessman Azruddin Mohamed, is currently second with more than 109,000 votes, positioning itself to become the main opposition, displacing A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which had under 78,000 votes.
The election took place amid Guyana's oil boom, which began in 2019 when ExxonMobil started offshore production. The country of about 800,000 people has earned $7.5 billion in revenue, yet a 2024 Inter-American Development Bank report found that 58% of Guyanese live in poverty. Ali's government has channelled oil revenue into infrastructure, schools, and free university tuition, but opposition parties decry unfair distribution of earnings to PPP/C-linked groups, allegations the party denies.
Observers from Caricom, the Commonwealth, the EU, and the Carter Centre praised the peaceful atmosphere but raised concerns about the 'perceived bloated' voters list and limited implementation of past observer recommendations. The territorial dispute with Venezuela over the oil-rich Essequibo region also looms.
