Guyana and its 780,000 inhabitants rarely make the headlines in the world. However, this former British colony, nestled in the northwest of South America, is about to break a record: the IMF forecasts GDP growth of 86% in 2020. The exploitation of the gigantic offshore oil reserves, discovered in 2016 by ExxonMobil, started in December 2019.
Estimated at some 8 billion barrels by the American major, these reserves could, in the long term, propel Guyana to the rank "From the richest country in the world", according to the forecasts of the American ambassador in Georgetown, Perry Holloway. On the eve of the general elections on Monday, March 2, President David Granger, a 74-year-old former soldier for re-election, called on his compatriots to vote "With wisdom".
In a country plagued by corruption where, since independence in 1966, politics has been largely played out on an ethnic basis, the prospect of an oil windfall makes us dream as much as it worries. It also fuels tensions with neighboring Venezuela which, for more than a century, has contested the course of the border between the two countries. Caracas claims the Essequibo region, two-thirds of Guyana and the territorial waters full of oil that go with it.
Political maneuvers and legal remedies
Oil already dominates the political life of the "Cooperative Republic of Guyana", the official name of the state. Suspected of having "Sold off the country's oil interests" Faced with Exon Mobil, the government was the subject of a censure motion in December 2018. President Granger has multiplied political maneuvers and legal remedies to delay the organization of general elections. Half a million voters were finally called to the polls.
The score promises to be close between on one side the coalition of Mr. Granger which brings together the parties of Association for National Unity and Alliance for Change and, on the other, the opponent Irfaan Ali, 39, Progressive People's Party (PPP). The results could take several days: in this country of mountains and jungles, communications remain difficult.
Dialogue between communities too. Afro-Guyanese, descendants of slaves imported from Africa by Dutch colonizers, represent just under 30% of the population. They largely support the parties in power, The Indo-Guyanese whose ancestors were brought from India and enslaved in the XIXe century by the British, they represent 40% of the population. They would like to see the PPP come back to power.
