Durrant Pate/Contributor

The polls have opened and voting is now underway in Guyana, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, to elect a new parliament and president.

Current President Irfaan Ali is seeking a second and final term in office.  

A total of 2,790 polling stations have been set up across the country with 757,690 electors registered to choose who should lead and represent them for the next five years. Ali and his People’s Progressive Party (PPP) won the previous elections in 2020 and managed to hold a 33-seat majority in a 65-seat Parliament. 

Opinion polls say the PPP will win the most seats again, but it is not a given that it could scrape through a majority again. The ruling PPP could be forced to seek a coalition to pass its legislative agenda. 

Multitude not seeing oil benefits

Opposition parties are unhappy with the government’s spending of Guyana’s oil income, which has caused the South American/Caribbean country to be one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The opposition has claimed that not all Guyanese are seeing the benefits of spending programmes, and that quality of life has not improved for all residents.

Three of Guyana’s opposition parties pledge to seek a larger share for Guyana from its contract with US oil giant ExxonMobil, which is leading the oil production in the country. Observers from the Commonwealth are on duty throughout Guyana at Charity, Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Lethem and Linden, as citizens choose their representatives.  

Commonwealth Observers arrived at polling stations in time for opening at 6:00 am and will observe the voting process until the polls close at 6:00 pm. In line with their mandate, they will observe the counting of votes and tabulation of results. 

The Commonwealth is supporting the Guyana Elections Commission through the appointment of two electoral experts, who are assisting the commission in fulfilling its mandate. This support is part of the Commonwealth’s approach to electoral assistance, which involves working with countries throughout the entire election cycle. 

Oil income from offshore projects in the Stabroek block has propelled Guyana’s economy, soaring by double digits in recent years. Earlier this month, Guyana’s oil-producing capacity jumped to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) after ExxonMobil launched production from Yellowtail, the fourth oil development in the prolific Stabroek block.  

Exxon and partners have found more than 11 billion oil equivalent barrels in the Stabroek block, where production was already above 660,000 bpd before the start of production at Yellowtail. Guyana’s offshore oil field is a top-performing asset with the potential to yield even more barrels and billions of U.S. dollars for the project’s partners.