WE ARE hours away from Guyana’s modern-day ‘Mother of all Elections’, the 2020 Regional and General Elections. These are the elections that will herald in Guyana’s development, in the context of the wealth of natural resources the country has right now and building upon the past 50 years of the cooperative developmental trajectory envisioned.

For more than a year, I have been holding my breath, waiting for tomorrow’s Regional and General elections. On that fateful December 21, 2018, I was there in the Parliamentary chambers. I was there when the first “yes” was said and my colleagues and I didn’t even realise the gravity of what was about to unfold until the second “yes” (well, the second set of “yesses”) were said so strongly.

In the weeks to follow, I watched Guyana move from a debate on whether this was a vote of consciousness or not; to spotlighting the dishonesty perpetuated by elected political leaders based on dual citizenship; and, a ‘simple’ constitutional argument with groundings in mathematics.

Then, I have seen the argument being made that because of that vote, there was a slow-down in the work of the government, in placing some institutional prerequisites in place to prepare for the acquisition of oil wealth.

But all that is gone now. What remains now is our ability to place an ‘X” next to the political party and the political leaders we want to govern our country, at least as per the constitution, for the next five years.

This is the Mother of all Elections, at least in my opinion, because Guyana finds itself at an epicenter of global attention due to its massive oil finds. Yes, oil is merely one sector, but for decades, oil has been the world’s most prized resource and an onslaught of foreign attention (and scrutiny) was always inevitable.

Then, the stark reality is that our country is but little Guyana, a country plagued by racial divisions and poor management of natural resources in the past. But now, this small country of about 700,000 people is expected to have its per capita wealth quadruple in the years to come, making it the richest country in the world on a per capita basis.

And at stake at these elections, is the developmental trajectory that Guyana will take in light of the massive revenues at her shore. Will Guyana be able to achieve its highly ambitious “green” agenda that all of the political leaders seem committed to? Or will it be another corrupt, failed oil economy? That’s the context here.

I am a young Guyanese, and I am quite optimistic about the wealth that can be garnered from these massive oil revenues. Simultaneously, however, I am wary about the threat of corruption and the mismanagement of funds. I mean, a fresher of this is just west of us.

Already, we’ve seen lavish promises along the campaign trail. Free tertiary education has been one of those lavish promises. I am not against free education, in fact, I really would like to see it happen. However, this promise of free education must be accompanied by a sound plan to develop the University of Guyana (UG) and other tertiary institutions first and to safeguard from the wastage of resources. This sort of practical thought, that guides these promises and plans, is what is necessary, in my opinion, if we are to hold our elected representatives accountable.

As reported in the Petroleum Economist, America’s analyst for political risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, Christian Wagner highlighted that in Guyana, the issue is less with which political party holds power, and more with the systemic lack of transparency in publishing contracts. This, he said, limits openness around Guyana’s oil sector and creates corruption possibilities.

I have written in this space, time and time again that this March 2 Regional and General election is practically the modern ‘mother of all elections’ for Guyana. This is my firm belief. Our petroleum sector is not the only sector in our economy, but due to the vast discoveries of the former number one most prized resources in the world, it is definitely the harbinger of our development. And paramount, in this situation, is the absolutely critical need for good governance.

Borrowing from the Petroleum Economist again, it was noted that Jose Chaloub, an independent geopolitical risk analyst based in Caracas has opined that Guyana should keep politics and ideologies aside from the dynamics of the oil sector and promote a correct wealth distribution from oil revenues.

More importantly, he, however, highlighted that regardless of the eventual electoral winner, Guyana should pursue long-term strategic planning for these oil reserves, which included management of its Sovereign Wealth Fund (known locally as the Natural Resources Fund) and it should look towards pursuing further regional cooperation. Long Term strategic planning requires mature leaders (and I don’t mean in age), and it requires us to vote for these leaders.

I want to be home so badly right now so that I can actually, physically exercise my franchise and cast my first vote. It is almost unimaginable how much of Guyana’s future depends on the outcomes of these elections, and our votes get to decide who are the people that bring forth this development for us.

Before I rest my case, I am urging you, I am pleading with you… go out tomorrow and cast your votes.