Elections
General elections to be held in November 2025 – Jagdeo: Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo last week disclosed that the next general elections will likely be held in November 2025, while Budget 2024 is expected to be presented to the National Assembly by the end of this month. Questioned about what will be the main priorities targeted for the oil and gas industry, given that elections will be held next year, Jagdeo said, “Clearly… in the oil and gas, we have done what we promised we will do so far. We made it clear. We’ve given explanations on some of the things that we will do but not now, we’ve phased them. The petroleum commission, we said we’re building capacity in the ministry. Now in this period of the creation of the framework for managing, framework for accountability in the sector that you need more, you need swifter, more political action to pass like the NRF, the Petroleum Activities Bill, to get the new PSA, all… things had to be driven politically to achieve them.” According to Jagdeo, “a technical body” would not have had the same sense of urgency to get those done. “We promised that [at] election, that’s why we did those.” He noted that people assessing the sector in Guyana from 2020 to the present would be able to see the massive changes “in the tools available to the country” to manage the sector. “Environmental, technical, almost everything,” while emphasising that there was an evolution in the framework with only the “jaundiced” not being able to see that. He then declared the ultimate goal to be a petroleum commission. When asked about the Skeldon sugar factory, Jagdeo responded that the government has a strategy to deal with that estate, more of which will be revealed during Budget 2024.
