Credit: Facebook.com / New Guyana president Irfaan Ail

By Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Five months after voters cast ballots to Guyana’s general elections, opposition candidate  Irfaan Ali was sworn in on Sunday as the oil-rich South American country’s new President. The election results from the March 2 election had been held up amid a re-count and accusations of vote rigging and fraud. Preliminary recount data released in June showed Ali, a member of the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), had won the initial poll. Many observers claimed the election results were being held hostage to the world’s largest new oil discovery that will generate billions of petro dollars to whoever is in charge of the government of the tiny South America nation. Guyana held its first election since the massive oil find in 2015 on March 2 between  incumbent president  David Granger and challenger Ali.  There are huge stakes as oil production could reach an estimated 1.2mn bl/d by 2030, increasing government income to $120 Billion over the next decade- a tempting prize in a country ranked as one of the poorest in the Western hemisphere.  Granger is of the People’s National Congress – Reform (PNCR) coalition, and rival Ali of the opposition PPP.  Granger’s government signed a contract with Exxon Mobil Corp  that includes a 2% royalty and a 50% profit share after cost recovery. The opposition sharply criticized the contract as “overly generous” to Exxon.

Credit: Wikipedia Commons /  Incumbent President David Granger lost to opposition candidate Irfaan Ali in a recount of votes of the March 2, 2020 disputed vote. 

The head of Guyana’s Supreme Court ordered a partial recount of votes in the March 2 disputed general election. The opposition accused the government of fraud in favour of incumbent President  Granger. The 5-month standoff garnered the condemnation of many international organizations including the Organization of American States (OAS) and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) who called on Granger to hand over power to  Ali. The United States even slapped visa restrictions of Guyana individuals “responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Guyana” in recent presidential election.

New Guyana President Ali Promises To Work to Unite The Country

“I want to assure you that I would uphold that oath; that I would work every day, in the best interest of the people of Guyana. There is only one future, and that future requires a united Guyana. That future requires a strong Guyana that future requires every Guyanese to play a part in building our country and ensuring we leave a better Guyana for the next generation. We are in this together. We are not separated by class, ethnicity, religion or political persuasion. We are united in the true Guyanese spirit,”

Guyana  President Ali

OAS Secretary General Congratulates the new President of Guyana  

Credit:  OAS /  Luis Almagro ,  Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C.

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, congratulated the new President of Guyana  Ali, on his election.

“The OAS has closely monitored the situation in Guyana since the polls closed on the night of March 2, 2020. We are happy that the multiple calls by the General Secretariat, national stakeholders and bilateral and multilateral partners, for the genuine results of the elections to be respected, were heard by GECOM. The OAS congratulates the people of Guyana for their patience.  Democracy in Guyana was put to the test in this process.”

 -Luis Almagro ,  Secretary General of the OAS

Almagro added that although it ultimately prevailed, “it is clear there are weaknesses in Guyana’s electoral system that must be addressed.”  He said that in the coming months the OAS  will issue its final report on the 2020 process with recommendations that can assist in addressing these weaknesses and avoiding a similar situation in the future.