Preparations are underway for the swearing-in ceremony of Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, returning for his second term in office after a sweeping win in Guyana’s September 1 General and Regional Elections.
Congratulatory messages have already begun to pour in for Ali from CARICOM and Latin American Heads of State.
An official declaration is expected today, following the completion of the approved recounts for Districts 4 and 5. The recounts were requested by the former main opposition party, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and its incoming replacement, the three-month-old We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, which alleges that the elections were not credible.
By and large, both recounts show that the win remains with Ali’s Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C). No major discrepancies were discovered, according to reports from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner, Sase Gunraj. This is largely in line with official statements from the numerous observer groups that bore witness to Guyana’s election.
“We’d be stupid not to plan the swearing-in,” General Secretary of the PPP/C Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters on Friday. “But we will not rush into it before the declaration.”
He and Ali paid separate visits to GECOM’s office on Friday, where the recount was being conducted.
Ali, speaking to media representatives, accused APNU and WIN of “playing games” with democracy.
“The life of this country is important. And the people continue to see who plays with the life of this country, who plays with the lives of the citizens, who don’t care anything about the citizens and the development of this country,” he said.
After the swearing-in, it will be business as usual for the PPP/C, leading the next five years of Guyana’s oil development. And this is exactly what Ali is looking forward to. “…We must keep investors’ confidence high,” he said.
As it stands, Guyana has four massive developments online in the ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek Block. There are plans for three additional developments; one has already been approved, and the other two are currently under review.
A high priority for Ali’s government will be the Gas-to-Energy project, expected to be completed next year. A review of Guyana’s current Local Content legislation aimed at creating more opportunities for Guyanese businesses and nationals is expected. The First Schedule in the legislation currently has 40 priority areas for Guyanese. This is expected to be increased. A further reduction in oil and gas payment timelines is also likely.
These were promises highlighted in the PPP/C’s manifesto.
SNAPSHOT OF ELECTION RESULTS
The PPP/C won about 242,451 votes, up from 233,336 in 2020, more than doubling the count of its nearest rival, the WIN Party. WIN, led by billionaire businessman Azruddin Mohamed, secured 109,015 votes, pulling votes from the once-dominant APNU. APNU garnered 77,973 votes, compared to 217,920 in 2020 when it ran in a coalition with the Alliance for Change (AFC). The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) received the third-highest number of votes, with 4,251, followed by the AFC with 3,611 votes and the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) with 1,044 votes.
These results are tabulated from the Statement of Polls for the ten districts published on GECOM’s website.
