President Irfaan Ali has claimed victory in both the country’s general and regional elections, declaring that his People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) secured over 240,000 votes and won seven of the country’s ten electoral districts, according to reporting by The Guardian.
Ali now faces the daunting challenge of steering one of the world’s fastest-growing economies powered by an oil boom while managing internal poverty and longstanding tensions with Venezuela, which claims a significant portion of Guyanese territory.
Though official final results have not yet been published, The Guardian reports that preliminary figures suggest a major shake-up for the opposition. The newly formed We Invest in Nationhood (Win) party, created just three months ago by businessman Azruddin Mohamed, has emerged as a strong contender, securing more than 109,000 votes, one district, and potentially a second. This puts Win ahead of the previously dominant A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which currently trails with under 78,000 votes.
Ali’s PPP/C also made history by reportedly winning Region Four, the country’s largest electoral district, which it had never won since Guyana’s independence in 1966. However, the party fell short of an outright majority there and will need the support of smaller parties to govern the region.
The elections, which followed months of heated campaigning over how to manage Guyana’s booming oil revenues, determined 65 seats in the national parliament. Since oil production began in 2019, the country has earned over $7.5 billion in revenue, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected the nation’s GDP to reach nearly US$26 billion, five times what it was just five years ago.