(CMC, 12.Nov.2018) — Finance Minister Winston Jordan has given an insight into the campaign for the 2020 general elections in Guyana telling voters that the oil sector will feature prominently in the race for the leadership of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
Addressing a political meeting ahead of Monday’s Local Government Elections (LGE) on Sunday, Jordan said that Guyana’s new found oil and gas industry would most likely be pivotal to the success of political parties contesting the general and presidential election in two years’ time.
“The next election is the mother of all elections ever in this country. You know why? Because the oil would be coming on stream and they all want their hands on the oil. We have to keep those thieves away from the oil resources,” he said at the meeting held at the Stabroek Market Square in the capital.
Jordan warned supporters of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) -dominated A Partnership for National unity (APNU) that would be robbed of the oil wealth if they “allow that other government” to return to office, a clear reference to the main opposition People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) that was sept out of office in 2015.
“If they get their hands on those oil resources, cat will eat your dinner,” Jordan said, urging the supporters to think about the political implications of the massive oil revenues expected after the country begins commercial production of oil and gas.
Jordan said even without the oil “they (former government ministers) built big mansions on our forefathers lands, on the sweat and blood of our forefathers and they did not even access to the oil resources”.
While no one has yet been charged in connection with the allegations, the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has been questioning several people, including former president Bharrat Jagdeo in the ongoing two-year probe.
Jordan noted that the integrity of President David Granger as an “honest, God-fearing person who has the interest of this country at heart and with him leading us again in 2020, you can be assured that the oil resources will be invested in your interest.
“I am passionate that this government must be given at least another term to put in place the policies that we are now setting. I am passionate that the coalition is the only government who can manage those massive oil resources that are coming,” he said.
Guyana is early 2020 expected to begin oil production at 120,000 barrels per day which would earn US$300 million in that year. Oil production is estimated to be about 750,000 barrels per day by 2025 and earning from profit oil and royalty could be more than one billion US dollars annually.
Guyanese are voting Monday in the Local Government Elections that the PPPC said should be viewed as a referendum on the performance of the APNU coalition.
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