Latest update October 3rd, 2026 10:20 AM
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- U.S. steps up pressure on China as firms battle for Guyana’s mega projects
- ExxonMobil goes deeper at Liza Two as hunt for more oil continues
- G7 countries agree on release of diesel and oil stocks after U.S. pressure
- Five remanded for murder of 23-year-old Corentyne labourer
- WIN MP resigns from parliament amid sexual misconduct investigations
Plenty elections talk, scant oil talk
Editorial…
Kaieteur News – Everybody is talking about the September 1 elections, with many diagnoses and predictions of what is going to happen between now and then. Talk and more elections talk from today, with a watchful eye on July 14, Nomination Day. Due to the damaging developments that have been part and parcel of many elections in Guyana, all of them, there are also anxieties about how the post-September 1 days will be. Whether smooth or scorching, that remains to be seen. We think that, at most, there may be some half-hearted sounds and movements, but that should be the sum of it. The presence of so many foreigners with a vested interest in oil and gold virtually guarantees such an environment. Oil and gold—especially oil—rarely stir excited, passionate conversations, and when they do, it’s only as a quick sidebar.
Elections have long been an inseparable component of this country’s life. They reveal the worst in large segments of Guyana’s population. If only some degree of interest and drive could emerge for the great patrimony that is now the inheritance of all Guyanese. If only, but that is a wish that is as forlorn as it is foregone: few are so engaged, committed, to show some signs of struggle for a better share of the national birthright. The fierce struggle that should be for oil, unfortunately, is the special preserve of elections. The ruling politicians and those contesting are familiar with the misdirected state of mind of the people, and they waste no time in using that to their advantage. It gives them the space to holler at each other more loudly about who is fit to be elected and who is not, and to whisper even less about anything that is related to oil. The crop of current political figures and groups fighting for the votes of citizens knows what sends them into ecstasies, on the one hand, and agonies, on the other.
It is about who is in and who is out. And who is moving to whom and who is crossing from where, that captivates voters. And who should be the leader, and who should get the fattest split of the spoils. And who is confident of winning, who is predicting a landslide. And who has a lock on being the prime minister, and who isn’t ready for the challenge, to pick up the mantle and best represent Guyanese. Elections are at the fingertips, with Guyanese standing as armchair experts about who is best qualified. Elections on the lips of the speech challenged, the learning deficient, and most of the population leaning this way or the other. Every citizen is now a predictor of the results, and many stand ready as bookmakers. It is about who has the money to buy votes, who is ready to sell themselves. There is an old maxim: all is fair in love and war. The same applies to elections in Guyana, which are never short of controversy, always promising what drains this country.
The elections have not even moved into high gear, and many citizens are already suffering from burnout. The energy that they should have to focus constantly on oil, and keep it percolating at that state, is either drowned out by the rhetoric of elections or drained away by superior competing interests. We are right back at elections, which is now seemingly superior to all else that is happening in this country. The cunning politicians know how to keep the voters occupied. Feed the people a steady dose of all the wrongs that the other side did over the years when they were in government, and then sit back and enjoy watching how voters tear into each other, like ferocious dogs over a bone. A spectacle is always guaranteed, and this year is already shaping up to follow the same script.
Who has the time, who cares, to talk about oil? Why waste energy on oil, and lose an opportunity to prove how loyal one is to a leader or group? ExxonMobil has to be delirious. Guyanese fight over elections, while ExxonMobil hustles out their oil cheaply, sweetly, uninterruptedly. What should be the biggest fight for Guyanese is not even a fight.
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