Guyana gets New President Five Months after Election

Conrad Omodiagbe, August 7, 2020

Five months after its original general elections, the elections commission in Guyana has finally declared opposition presidential candidate, Irfaan Ali, the winner of the disputed March 2 election. This follows allegations of vote tampering, a recount and a lengthy legal battle that forced Washington to interfere, calling on outgoing President David Granger to accept defeat.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), through its Chair Claudette Singh, declared Mohamed Irfaan Ali as the country’s ninth executive president as she confirmed the results of the election in favour of the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), paving the way for a change in power in the new oil-producing South American country.

Following the announcement, Ali was sworn in alongside General Secretary of the PPP and former President Bharrat Jagdeo as vice president as well as former Guyana Defence Force Chief of Staff, Mark Phillips, as prime minister.

An Election Complicated by Oil

The final result comes months after a consortium led by Exxon Mobil Corp began producing oil off Guyana’s coast, turning the impoverished country of fewer than 800,000 people into the world’s newest crude hot spot and attracting eyes from the international community. One of the main topics of the presidential campaign was how to use the windfall from the discovery.

Elections on March 2 pitted incumbent David Granger, of the People’s National Congress, against the much younger Ali of the PPP. While Granger declared victory days after the vote, international electoral observers noted that counting in Guyana’s most populous electoral district, Region Four, had been “interrupted” and was “incomplete.” The Opposition party also alleged that the result in Region Four had been inflated in Granger’s favour, forcing Guyana’s Supreme Court to order a full recount of the elections which eventually proved the opposition’s case.

Outgoing President David Granger has said he will take his allegations of fraud to the high court, appealing to his supporters to remain peaceful.

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