Ali is Guyana’s new president
Five months after the general election, opposition candidate Irfaan Ali has been declared and sworn in as Guyana’s president.
The declaration came from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Sunday afternoon following a meeting of GECOM Commissioners and Chairman Claudette Singh.
Following allegations of vote tampering, a recount and a lengthy legal battle, the election commission declared Mr Ali the winner on Sunday and he was sworn in hours later.
Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield also submitted his election report today, using the figures obtained during the national recount, and it showed the PPP/C won the elections with 233,336 votes.
Granger’s A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) received 217,920 votes. A coalition of smaller parties received a combined 5,214 votes.
His rival, outgoing president David Granger said that while he respected “the lawful consequences” of the announcement by the elections commission declaring Mr Ali the winner, he would take the allegations of electoral fraud to the country’s supreme court. He also appealed to his supporters to remain peaceful.
Ali called for unity saying that “there is only one future and that future requires a united Guyana, that future requires a strong Guyana”.
He also said that he would be naming his cabinet soon and promised “a government that is accessible and one that will be more than willing to share with you information as we work on building our Guyana in the interest of all”.
Ali and ExxonMobil
The election was the first to be held after the US oil giant Exxon made one of the world’s biggest discoveries of oil in deep waters off Guyana’s coast.
The discovery could put Guyana among the world’s top oil producers and is expected to massively boost its economy.
Guyana’s government could generate around $4.4 billion in oil production revenues by 2028 from Payara, one of 16 ExxonMobil discoveries on the country’s deep-water Stabroek block if the original startup date of 2023 for that project were kept intact, Rystad said.
One of the main topics of the presidential campaign was how to use the windfall from the discovery. However, Ali and his party have been critical of the contract the outgoing government signed with Exxon saying it was not favourable enough to Guyana.