Irfaan Ali re-elected for second term as oil-rich Guyana’s president

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali has been re-elected for a second term, according to the country’s electoral body, after a vote that gave his party a mandate to manage the South American nation’s newfound oil riches amid a territorial dispute with Venezuela.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) said in a statement released late on Sunday night that Ali’s People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won the general election, held on September 1, securing 55 percent of the 65-seat parliament.

Ali’s re-election comes after the country of 800,000 people reaped a $7.5bn windfall from oil sales and royalties since ExxonMobil started pumping offshore oil in late 2019, making Guyana one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Ali’s government, which took power in 2020, has funnelled oil revenue into building roads, schools and hospitals, and made studying at the state university free. But he now faces a diplomatic challenge as he navigates the country’s territorial dispute with Venezuela.

Ali had already claimed victory in the elections on Wednesday.

Among the first world leaders who congratulated Ali for his victory was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wrote on X that he is looking forward to strengthening India-Guyana ties.

In remarks on Saturday, Ali replied on X that he also looks forward to working with Modi and India “to further build our already strong and cordial relations”.

In a statement on X, the British Embassy also congratulated Ali and Guyana “for a successful and peaceful election”.

Ali, a 45-year-old centre-left leader, also faces the challenge of ensuring that the benefits of Guyana’s vast oil wealth reach his constituents, more than half of whom still live in poverty despite the nation’s soaring gross domestic product (GDP).

Ali’s main rival, multi-millionaire populist Azruddin Mohamed, nicknamed the “Guyanese Trump”, and his newly formed We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party finished second with 24.8 percent of the vote.

The opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which represents much of the country’s Afro-Guyanese population, came third with 17.7 percent.

Ali, whose party draws much of its support from the Indo-Guyanese community, will assume a second five-year term at a time of rising tensions with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who claims sovereignty over the oil-rich Essequibo region and appointed authorities for that area in controversial elections held in May.

Ali has the support of the United States, which is also fomenting escalating tensions with Venezuela following the deployment of warships in the Caribbean for anti-drug operations.

Maduro has recently said the US military build-up in the Caribbean is aimed at overthrowing his government, and he was ready to “declare a republic in arms” if attacked by US forces.

The dispute over the Essequibo region is centuries old, but it intensified in 2015 after the discovery of enormous oil resources.

Guyana currently has the largest oil reserves per capita in the world, expected to reach production of one million barrels per day by 2030, compared with the current 650,000.

The oil wealth has allowed the state budget to quadruple in five years to $6.7bn in 2025, with a world-beating economic growth of 43.6 percent in 2024.

Guyana appealed to the International Court of Justice in 2018 to ratify an 1899 award that established its current borders, but Venezuela rejects the court’s jurisdiction and asserts the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which establishes the basis for a negotiated settlement.