Even though a statute puts power in the hands of a Returning Officer, that Returning Officer will understand that he holds in his hands the future and stability of Guyana as we go forward, because every vote must be made to count.
Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados & Chair of CARICOM
Free and fair elections are indispensable in a democracy. Such elections convey the people’s choice of leadership and in the absence of a credible process for determining the results, the legitimacy of any leadership installed is questionable.
Transparency Institute Guyana Inc.
The price of crude oil collapsed last Monday by a record 31 per cent, with Brent crude trading at $31.05 while WTI, slightly below $30. It was the single largest drop in any one day since the 1991 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Experts believe that the price could dip to below $20. This not good news for Guyana. On several occasions, we had warned against the over-dependence on oil revenues. Indeed, we have advocated ad nauseam about the need to actively promote a sufficiently diversified economy to not only guard against the volatility of oil prices but also reflect the fact that fossil fuels are an exhaustible resource and will one day come to an end. However, since 2015 when ExxonMobil announced the discovery of vast amounts of oil reserves off our shores, we have been so pre-occupied with the prospect of oil revenues that we became oblivious of the dangers of having a mono product economy as well as the Paris Accord on Climate Change that requires the progressive phasing out of the use of fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable sources of energy.
