While New Yorkers were on the streets of Brooklyn reveling in annual Labor Day celebrations, voters in two leading Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries will be facing or preparing to face the electorate this week, with candidates in both nations making the 2025 electoral contests as the most consequential since independence from Britain in the 1960s.
First out of the proverbial blocks would be Guyana, voting on Labor Day for a new administration. Whichever party wins the Guyana contest will be rolling in bountiful revenues, thanks to billions of dollars flowing annually into state coffers from the offshore oil and gas sector that has blossomed with the 2015 discovery of commercial quantities of oil and gas.
Two days later, Jamaicans face the electorate with a major historical “carrot” on offer to the governing Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), because no JLP leader has won three consecutive terms as the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has done. Party leader and Prime Minister Andrew Holness has urged Jamaicans to give him a third term, citing an improving economy and a significant reduction in violent felony crimes, including murders, a scourge that has bedeviled the northern Caribbean nation for decades.
The two regional nations are facing the polls in one of the busiest years for elections in the 15-member Caricom bloc of nations, with polls already held in Suriname, Trinidad, Belize, Anguilla, the Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Curacao, and the Cayman Islands. Election preparations are also at an advanced stage in St. Vincent and the Bahamas — leaders of both countries can name a date this year, although their terms run into 2026.
In the Guyana contest, the race is shaping up to be a three-way fight between the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP); the main opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU); and We Invest in Nationhood, an upstart party formed only in late May and campaigning to rave reviews, especially among young and first-time voters.
The winner of the Guyana race is expected to govern without any major concerns about money, since revenues from oil and gas pump around $8 million into state coffers each day. With a fourth oilfield coming onstream just weeks ago, this amount is expected to increase exponentially, with production headed to around 900,000 barrels daily. State regulatory agencies say applications for four more oil fields are in the system for approval. President Mohamed Irfaan Ali has urged supporters to stay with the PPP, despite widespread credible allegations of corruption and nepotism, among other ills.
“We’ve created tens of thousands of new jobs,” Ali told a recent rally. “We’ve created tens of thousands of households, surpassing our commitment in the manifesto. We have built thousands of new homes and provided low-income and low-interest loans. Consider the way we are delivering, because it is comprehensive, and if you do not vote for moving forward together as one people on September 1, you put it all at risk.”
For his part, opposition and APNU presidential candidate Aubrey Norton says the PPP must be removed before Guyana becomes a full and irreversible kleptocracy.
“Guyana needs to be governed properly,” Norton said. “At present, Guyana is governed by a set of incompetent people. Their best qualification is plundering the treasury. I have never seen a government with so many thieves. They don’t care anymore. They have become barefaced with their corruption. We said to you, as the next government, we will be putting people first. Why do we put people first? Because we believe the most important resource to develop in this country is the human resource.”
None of the three main parties have released any polls on who will win in Guyana, but there has been increasing chatter about a hung parliament, with neither the PPP nor the APNU winning enough seats to control the 65-member parliament.
By the time official results are announced, as promised by the electoral commission on Wednesday or Thursday, Jamaicans should be at polling stations across the country, either electing a new government or giving the JLP an historic third term.
The latest Don Anderson poll said that the PNP is clinging to a slight lead over the JLP, but the JLP appears to have picked up more new voters than the PNP. Around 31% of the electorate say they are still undecided.
“We have to work for it,” Holness said of winning a third term. “I have never been given anything free. I have had to work for anything that I have had. Whatever I have, I have worked hard and honestly for it.”
Meanwhile, opposition and PNP leader Mark Golding says corruption is out of control and measures will be introduced to reduce this scourge. “We are wallowing in the sinking sands of corruption under this government,” Golding said, complaining about illicit enrichment among some lawmakers and senior government officials. “We are going to introduce the impeachment procedure. We are going to modify some clauses in the integrity act.”
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