Guyana reproaches Venezuela as an attack on electoral officials before the vote

The security forces in Guyana say that a boat transporting electoral officials and ballot boxes has been killed by “the Venezuelan shore” in the contested region of Essequibo.

Guyana police and defense force said in a joint statement that the incident occurred on Sunday, before the South American nation general on Monday.

The patrol that escorted the civil servants “immediately returned fire” and no one was injured, Guyana’s security forces said.

Venezuela did not comment on the incident, which occurs in the middle of a territorial dispute between the two nations in the Essequibo region rich in oil.

The 159,500 square meter area (61,600 square miles) was administered by Guyana and British Guyana before it, for more than a century.

But Venezuela claimed the region and, in December 2023, the government of President Nicolás Maduro organized a referendum in which more than 95% of the Venezuelans who voted supported its complaint.

The Guyana brought the case before the International Court of Justice, but Venezuela challenged the authority of the Court to govern.

The declaration of the Guyanese security forces did not say who could be behind the shooting, but they insisted that the shots had been drawn from the Venezuelan territory.

He added that the polls aboard the boat had been delivered safely to the remote polling stations for which they were intended.

Guyana voters choose a president for the next five years, as well as members of his parliament.

The holder, President Irfaan Ali of the Progressive / Civic Party of the People (PPP / C), arises for a second term and the polls suggest that he is the favorite.

He is challenged for the first post by Aubrey Norton of the Coalition at Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and by Azruddin Mohamed, a billionaire trying to disrupt the Bipartite system of Guyana.

The polls carried out before the start of the vote had President Ali as a favorite, supported by the income of the economic boom that Guyana knows after the discovery of massive offshore oil deposits.

The country of 800,000 inhabitants has seen its GDP almost fivefold in the five years since 2020, according to IMF figures.

President Ali used income to improve Guyana infrastructure, investing in road construction and education, in particular by frequenting free state universities.

But his criticisms say that oil revenues have been disproportionately channeled to benefit the groups that traditionally support Ali’s party, the president that the president denied.

The Guyana’s political landscape has been largely divided for ethnic lines for decades, members of the Indo-Guyanese community traditionally, which traditionally supports PPP / C and Afro-Guyanais mainly supporting the national popular Congress, which is part of the coalition led by Aubrey Norton.

The party or the coalition that wins the most votes can present the president.

While President Ali declared that he was confident of the re -election, his party had only one majority at a seat in the outgoing legislature.

Analysts stressed that the campaign of the third -party candidate Azruddin Mohamed could open the established voting models and produce a surprise result.

Voting ballots close at 6:00 p.m. local time (10:00 p.m. GMT).