Guyana holds general election as candidates vie for control of country's oil wealth

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Thousands of voters in Guyana participated Monday in what many say is the South American country’s most consequential election in decades given that whichever party wins will oversee $10 billion in annual revenue from offshore oil and gas production.

In recent years, Guyana has transformed from a country traditionally dependent on gold, sugar, rice, bauxite and timber to one reaping the windfall of nearly 900,000 barrels of oil produced daily.

The World Bank has noted that Guyana has the world's fastest growing economy with gross domestic product increases averaging around 15% annually in the past six years.

ExxonMobil, which is leading an international consortium, has applications for four more oil fields as the promise of even greater revenue looms.

Guyana’s electoral commission printed ballots for six parties, but most in the diverse nation believe the election is a contest among the governing Indo-dominated People’s Progressive Party of President Irfaan Ali; the Afro-supported main opposition A Partnership for National Unity; and upstart newcomer mixed-race party We Invest In Nationhood, led by U.S. government-sanctioned Guyanese businessman Azruddin Mohamed, who comes from one of the country’s wealthiest families.

For Ali, a 45-year-old urban planner, this is the most important election since independence from Britain in 1966, as he pleaded with voters to give “me a second term.” His party trumped A Partnership for Nation Unity in the 2020 elections.

“We ask you to trust us once more to deliver greater, better, faster and more efficiently,” Ali told jubilant supporters at a coastal rally late Saturday. “We have the experience, and you can trust us to lead you into the bright prosperous future ahead of us.”

Meanwhile, A Partnership for Nation Unity, led by 68-year-old political scientist Aubrey Norton, has accused Ali’s party of corruption, nepotism, harassment of opposition voices and alleged irresponsible use of oil sector revenues.

“Our aim is to restore decency in Guyana, to restore law and order, and to lift the people of Guyana out of poverty. We want to build a society that truly serves its people and ensures that every Guyanese benefits from our nation’s oil wealth,” Norton told a massive final rally.

Evelyn Crawford, a 75-year-old retiree, said she voted for the opposition. The monthly state pension for people over 65 of some $200 a month is not enough for a country flush with oil money, she said.

“What they give us is way not enough. I would like to see that people are lifted out of poverty,” she said as she left a voting center.

A new party, We Invest In Nationhood, founded in late May, has been well received by first-time and younger voters like DeLinda Henry, an Indigenous mother of four from the western Mazaruni Region near Venezuela.

“It is time to try something else other than the PPP and the APNU. I am supporting WIN because Mr. Mohamed does not need to steal any money. ...He is a billionaire and has lots of his own,” she said.

Before Mohamed’s party was founded three months ago, the race had appeared to be a fight between Guyana’s two major parties, which have traded power since the early 1950s.

But Mohamed faces his own struggles. Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Mohamed, his father, their gold-exporting company and a government official “for their roles in public corruption” in a bribery scheme that authorities said ran from 2019 to 2023. Mohamed has denied the accusations.

The U.S. government has said it is “deeply concerned” about Mohamed’s presidential aspirations as the U.S. would be forced to avoid contact with committees and agencies on which he might serve.

“We would have to make sure that we didn’t work with him specifically,” Ambassador Nicole Theriot told reporters recently, suggesting U.S. companies might also avoid doing business with him and Guyana.

The six parties that participated in Monday’s election are fighting for the presidency and seats in the 65-member Parliament, along with the chance to control and spend the billions of dollars flowing into state coffers from oil and gas production.

On Sunday, members of Guyana's election commission, escorted by police and soldiers, came under fire while traveling on a river along the border with Venezuela, which has long claimed two-thirds of Guyana as its own. No one was injured, and election materials aboard the boat were not damaged, according to Guyanese officials who said the gunfire came from Venezuela.

Several international groups were on the ground to monitor the election, including The Carter Center, the Organization of American States and members of Caricom, a regional trade bloc.

In a pre-election statement, The Carter Center complained about the size of Guyana’s voter list and the failure of authorities to release the 2022 population census, calling this a ”regrettable lapse,” which “obscures public understanding of basic population demographics and their potential relation to the size of the voter list.”

There are 757,000 registered voters in a country with an estimated 794,000 inhabitants.

President Irfaan Ali, who is running for re-election, aves after voting during general elections in Leonora, Guyana, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Voters line up at a polling station during general elections in Georgetown, Guyana, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A voter casts her ballot during general elections in Georgetown, Guyana, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Presidential candidate Azruddin Mohamed of the We Invest in Nationhood party greets supporters after voting in general elections in Georgetown, Guyana, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Voters line up at a polling station during general elections in Georgetown, Guyana, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Opposition presidential candidate Aubrey Norton of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) coalition shows his ink-stained finger after voting during general elections in Georgetown, Guyana, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Voters line up at a polling station during general elections in Georgetown, Guyana, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish court on Thursday issued a ruling that effectively removed the head of the country’s main opposition party by annulling a 2023 congress that elected him.

The move deals a serious blow to the beleaguered Republican People’s Party, or CHP, as it struggles under waves of legal cases targeting its members and elected officials.

An appeals court in Turkey’s capital Ankara declared the CHP congress that picked Ozgur Ozel as chairman to be null, ordering that he should be replaced by his predecessor, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Last year, a lower court ruled against claims of irregularities and misconduct surrounding Ozel’s election but Thursday’s decision overturned the original verdict.

The ruling led to frantic meetings at the CHP’s Ankara headquarters, further threatening the opposition’s chances of unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after more than two decades in office. Large crowds gathered outside the office block and police erected barriers.

The next presidential election is due in 2028 but Erdogan can call for an early vote. His main challenger, the CHP mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu, has been imprisoned since March last year and is currently on trial on corruption charges.

The appeals court's decision suspends Ozel and members of the party’s executive board from their duties. They will be “provisionally” replaced by Kilicdaroglu and those who held office before the November 2023 congress.

In comments to broadcaster TV100, Kilicdaroglu called for party members to remain calm. “Our party is a very large party and it will solve its own problems internally,” he said. The 77-year-old was removed following a 13-year tenure as leader, during which the CHP failed to win any national elections.

Ozel, meanwhile, attempted to rally supporters.

“I am not promising you a path to power through a rose garden,” he posted on X following the ruling. “I am promising you the ability to endure suffering but never surrender. I am promising you honor, dignity, courage and struggle!”

The CHP is expected to challenge Thursday’s ruling in the Supreme Court in the coming days.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek, who oversaw several cases against the CHP in his former role as Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, described the court’s ruling as one that “reinforces our citizens’ trust in democracy.”

Many observers have said that the legal cases against the CHP — mostly centered on corruption allegations — are politically motivated and aimed at neutralizing the party ahead of the next election. The government, however, insists that Turkey’s courts are impartial and act independently of political pressure.

Erdogan has ruled Turkey, first as prime minister and then as president, since 2003. His electoral record suffered a serious blow in 2019 when the CHP seized control of several major cities in local elections. In Istanbul, Imamoglu emerged as a popular and charismatic figure that many felt could successfully topple Erdogan.

FILE - Republican People's Party or (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel gestures to party members during his speech during a CHP convention, in Ankara, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Ali Unal, File)

FILE - Turkish CHP party leader and Nation Alliance's presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, center, joins legislators elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as they attend their first parliamentary session, in Ankara, Turkey, June 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Ali Unal, File)