Guyana accuses Venezuela of attacking election staff before voting

Guiana’s security forces claim that a boat carrying electoral staff and urns was shot dead “from the Venezuelan coast” in the contested ESEKIBO region.

Guiana’s police and defense forces said in a joint statement that the incident took place on Sunday before South America’s general elections on Monday.

The patrol that accompanied the employees “immediately returned fire” and no one was injured, Guyana’s security forces reported.

Venezuela did not comment on the incident that came against the background of a territorial dispute between the two nations for the essay -rich region.

The area of ​​159,500 square km (61 600 square miles) has been administered by Guiana and British Guyana before it for more than a century.

But Venezuela claimed for the area and in December 2023 the government of President Nicolas Maduro held a referendum in which more than 95% of the Venezuelans voted supported his request.

Guyana took the question of the International Court of Justice, but Venezuela disputed the court’s powers to rule on it.

The Gayan security forces state does not say who may be behind the shooting, but they insist that the shots were fired from the territory of Venezuela.

He added that the ballot boxes were delivered safely to the remote polling stations for which they were intended.

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

The current President Irfaan Ali of the People’s Progressive Party/Civil (PP/C) is running for a second term, and the polls suggest that he is the presenter.

He was challenged for the uppermost post by the Norton Resort of the Coalition for National Unity Partnership (APNU) and Azruddin Mohamed, a billionaire trying to violate Guyana’s two-party system.

Polls conducted before the vote began, President Ali as a favorite set by the revenue from the economic boom that Guiana experiences after the opening of massive offshore oil deposits.

The country of 800,000 inhabitants has seen GDP almost Quintopul in the five years of 2020, according to IMF data.

President Ali uses revenue to improve Guiana infrastructure by investing in road and education, including a visit to state universities for free.

But his critics say that oil revenue was disproportionately focused on groups of benefits that traditionally support the Ali Party, an accusation that the president denied.

The political landscape of Guiana has been largely divided by ethnic lines for decades, with members of the Indo-Guyan community traditionally supporting PPP/C and African-Gayan voters, who mainly support the National Congress, which is part of the coalition led by Drari Norton.

The party or coalition that wins the most votes must offer the president.

While President Ali said he was confident in the re -election, his party had only a majority with one seat in leaving legislature.

Analysts have indicated that the third -party candidate campaign Azruddin Mohamed may interrupt open established voting models and lead to a surprising result.

The ballots are closed at 18:00 local time (22:00 GMT).