Guyana blames Venezuela for attack on election officials ahead of vote

Security forces in Guyana say a boat carrying election officials and ballot boxes was shot at "from the Venezuelan shore" in the contested Essequibo region.

Police and the Guyana defence force said in a joint statement that the incident occurred on Sunday, ahead of the South American nation's general election on Monday.

The patrol that had been escorting the officials "immediately returned fire" and no one was injured, Guyana's security forces said.

Venezuela has not commented on the incident, which comes amid a territorial dispute between the two nations over the oil-rich Essequibo region.

The 159,500-sq-km (61,600-square-mile) area has been administered by Guyana, and British Guiana before it, for over a century.

But Venezuela lays claim to the area and, in December 2023, President Nicolás Maduro's government held a referendum in which more than 95% of Venezuelans who voted backed its claim.

Guyana has taken the matter to the International Court of Justice, but Venezuela has disputed the court's authority to rule on it.

The statement from the Guyanese security forces did not say who may have been behind the shooting, but they insisted the shots had been fired from Venezuelan territory.

It added that the ballot boxes onboard the boat had been delivered safely to the remote polling stations they were destined for.

Voters in Guyana are choosing a president for the next five years, as well as members of its parliament.

The incumbent, President Irfaan Ali of the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), is running for a second term and polls suggest he is the frontrunner.

He is being challenged for the top post by Aubrey Norton of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) coalition and by Azruddin Mohamed, a billionaire trying to disrupt Guyana's two-party system.

Polls conducted before the voting started had President Ali as the favourite, buoyed by the revenue from the economic boom Guyana is experiencing following the discovery of massive offshore oil deposits.

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

President Ali used the revenue to improve Guyana's infrastructure, investing in road-building and education, including making attendance at state universities free of charge.

But his critics say oil revenues have been channelled disproportionally to benefit groups which traditionally support Ali's party, an accusation the president has denied.

Guyana's political landscape has for decades been largely split along ethnic lines, with members of the Indo-Guyanese community traditionally supporting the PPP/C and Afro-Guyanese voters mainly backing the People's National Congress, which forms part of the coalition led by Aubrey Norton.

The party or coalition which wins the most votes gets to put forward the president.

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

Analysts have pointed out that the campaign by third-party candidate Azruddin Mohamed could break open established voting patterns and produce a surprise result.

Ballots close at 18:00 local time (22:00 GMT).