“I am ready” – Ali on assuming office

President-elect Dr Irfaan Ali says he is “ready” to assume office.
The recently concluded National Recount shows a landslide victory for the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) party, with 15,416 more votes than its main political rival, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition.

According to Article 177 (2) (b), having obtained the highest number of votes, Ali has become the President-elect, and it is now only for GECOM to make a final declaration.
Article 177 (2) (b) states: “…where there are two or more Presidential candidates, if more votes are cast in favour of the list in which a person is designated as Presidential candidate than in favour of any other list, that Presidential candidate shall be deemed to be elected President and shall be so declared by the Chairman of the Elections Commission…”

With the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) having submitted his report to the Guyana Elections Commission on Saturday, GECOM will now have to deliberate on the findings before making its highly anticipated declaration, on or before June 16, of the final results of the March 2 elections – held over three months ago.
According to Ali, he is ready to lead Guyana.

“I’m not nervous…I’m ready! Our team is ready! And we’re ready to move forward with a broadened approach, a widened approach, a collective approach in building this country,” the PPP/C Presidential Candidate posited during an interview on local radio progamme ‘Room 592.’
Ali underscored the need for Guyana, which has been in an electoral impasse over the past three months amidst a global pandemic, to move on.

“We are hoping that with all the voices globally – the regional voices, the international voice, the sane voices – that good sense will prevail [and] that we can get past these elections and we can move towards building our country. We can move towards bringing meaningful changes and meaningful measures that will take our fellow Guyanese out of the current situation they find themselves in,” he asserted.

The president-elect further pointed out the need and urgency to deal with the challenges brought on by the current COVID-19 pandemic, not only from a health, but from economic and social perspectives as well.
“We should be able to have that declaration (of a winner) on June 16, so that our country can move forward; so that our people can move forward; and so that the political environment can allow some sort of ease, not only for Guyanese, but for investors and for everyone who are stakeholders in this,” he stated.
On this note, Ali referred to his COVID-19 strategy, which he noted is already in place to take the country and its people forward.

“The strategy has a financial aspect, an economic aspect, a social aspect, a health aspect, a transition aspect as to how we will transition to the reopening of the economy; and a support aspect at the household level, at the community level, at the business level and at the level of the economy.

“So, yes, you will see a holistic strategy that will bring relief to people, that will bring relief to businesses, that will bring relief to our economy, and that would inject resources in our economy,” the PPP/C President-elect outlined.
According to Ali, he has a responsibility to the electorate to ensure that the promises made in the manifesto that he campaigned on before the March elections are all achieved during his tenure in office.

“So it is very important we are able to move forward in implementing that manifesto. So there is no stepping back from our manifesto. There is no stepping back from the targets we have in that manifesto. For us, it is a contractual relationship between us and every single Guyanese, because they placed their confidence in us by voting for us, based on that manifesto,” he stressed.

These promises include removal of value-added taxes (VAT) from water and electricity; reversal of burdensome taxes imposed by the Coalition; $50,000 annual grants for school children; and free tertiary education at the University of Guyana (UG), among other things.