Guyana election results have given President Irfaan Ali and his People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) a decisive lead, winning more than 240,000 votes and securing seven of the country’s ten electoral districts. Ali declared victory following Monday’s polls, citing the published figures from the Guyana Elections Commission as clear evidence of a mandate for a second term.
The outcome positions Ali to continue steering Guyana through the opportunities and pressures of its oil boom, which has transformed the South American nation into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Despite earning more than US$7.5 billion in revenue from oil sales and royalties since 2019, a 2024 Inter-American Development Bank report estimates that 58% of Guyanese still live in poverty.
Preliminary tallies have also indicated a major political shift in the opposition landscape. The newly formed We Invest in Nationhood (Win) party, led by business magnate Azruddin Mohamed, captured over 109,000 votes and one district, displacing A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) as the main opposition force. APNU, which governed before Ali took office in 2020, garnered fewer than 78,000 votes.
Ali’s party achieved a historic breakthrough in Region Four, Guyana’s largest electoral district, which the PPP/C had never won since independence in 1966. The party fell short, however, of a full majority there and may need support from smaller parties to govern effectively.
The election, which decided 65 parliamentary seats, unfolded peacefully and was monitored by observers from Caricom, the Commonwealth, the European Union and the Carter Centre. While international observers praised the orderly conduct of the polls, they expressed concern about the long-standing mistrust over the voters’ list, which Caricom described as “perceived bloated.”
Ali defended his government’s record, pointing to investments in roads, hospitals, schools, and free university education funded by oil revenues. Guyana’s GDP has surged to nearly US$26 billion—five times its level five years ago. Opposition figures, however, argue that government spending fuels inflation and that oil revenues are not fairly distributed.
Complicating the road ahead is Guyana’s territorial dispute with Venezuela, which claims two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass, including the offshore region where ExxonMobil discovered vast oil reserves a decade ago. Managing these external tensions alongside internal demands for fair wealth distribution will be central to Ali’s second term.
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