The president serves as chief of state and head of government for a maximum of two five-year terms. The president appoints the cabinet, though ministers are collectively responsible to the National Assembly. Parties designate a presidential candidate ahead of National Assembly elections.

Long-delayed elections held in March 2020 were marred by serious attempted fraud. Then president David Granger eventually accepted a recount showing that Irfaan Ali of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won the presidency. Ali took up his post that August.

Members of the unicameral, 65-seat National Assembly are elected to five-year terms; 25 representatives are elected in 10 constituencies, while 40 are elected by proportional representation nationally. Up to seven unelected cabinet ministers and parliamentary officials may also hold ex officio seats.

In the 2020 elections, the PPP/C won 33 seats, Granger’s coalition of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) won 31, and a coalition of opposition parties was allocated 1 seat. European Union (EU) observers said the poll’s integrity was “seriously compromised” by the manipulation of results by senior Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) officials. The eventual allocation of seats was based on a recount approved by Caribbean Community observers.

Although observers characterized the 2020 polls as generally free, EU observers described GECOM as derelict in its duty to stop its officials from interfering with the results.

A presidential commission of inquiry (COI) tasked with looking into the 2020 elections delivered its report in April 2023. The COI found “shockingly brazen” attempts by three GECOM officials to “derail and corrupt” the count. All three officials implicated had been dismissed from their positions in August 2021.

A Constitutional Reform Commission (CRC) was announced by the Ali administration in 2022. The process of forming the CRC had not begun as of August 2023. The attorney general said that the commission would be a 20-member body comprising politicians and civil society members, would likely look at the running of elections, and would submit its recommendations for approval by the National Assembly.

Local elections held in June 2023 were generally described by both local and international observers as free and fair, although turnout was low at 35 percent. The PPP/C won 66 of 80 Local Authority Areas, up from the 52 won by the party in the 2018 local elections.

Political parties generally form and operate without interference. The APNU is predominantly Afro-Guyanese while the PPP/C is mainly Indo-Guyanese. Ethnopolitical divisions have sharpened amid the influx of oil and gas revenue. New parties emerged to contest the 2020 elections, gaining one shared seat. Independent candidates cannot stand for the presidency.

The PPP/C ruled from 1992 to 2015, and the APNU–AFC coalition from 2015 to 2020. The PPP/C took power through elections in 2020, but significant pressure from the international community was required to ensure a declaration of the PPP/C as the winner based on a recount.

Voters are largely free to make their own political choices. However, there is concern that politics may be improperly influenced by the largely Indo-Guyanese economic elite.

Following the June 2023 local elections, the opposition AFC claimed that cash bribes and government favors were responsible for the ruling party’s strong performance in the polls, an allegation that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo denied.

Women and ethnic minorities have equal political rights under the law. A third of each party’s candidate list must be women. Women gained 25 of the National Assembly’s 65 elected and 5 ex officio seats in 2020.

Indigenous people, who make up about 10 percent of the population, remain politically marginalized.

The president and the legislative majority are generally able to create and implement policy without improper interference.

Political polarization has delayed constitutional reform and prevented important vacancies from being filled. However, there have been signs that the post-2020 political impasse is thawing. In May 2022, President Ali met officially with opposition leader Aubrey Norton of the APNU–AFC for the first time, to discuss several long-vacant judicial and official appointments.

In recent years, successive governments have introduced safeguards against corruption, notably by strengthening money-laundering controls and empowering a new agency to audit state-owned companies. However, graft remains widespread, and a huge windfall from oil and natural gas reserves—estimates suggest the government could soon earn US$10 billion annually from the industry—has made the need for effective anticorruption reforms more urgent. Critics have suggested that recent government expenditures, including a US$35 million electronic ID system announced in March 2023, shows evidence of waste and corruption.

In July 2022, Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI) called on the government to officially investigate corruption allegations concerning Vice President Jagdeo made in a report by US–based Vice News. No such investigation took place in 2023.

Government transparency laws are inconsistently upheld. A 2013 Access to Information Act allows the government to refuse requests with little or no justification.

In May 2022, a board was appointed to the government integrity commission, which had remained vacant for over a year.

Critics have suggested that some oil contracts, negotiated privately between the government and individual companies, are unfavorable to Guyana, including the government’s contract with ExxonMobil. A legal ruling in May 2023 required the firm to take full financial responsibility for any oil spills, with no upper limit. A Guyanese judge issued a stay on the May decision in June, on the condition that ExxonMobil would agree to take financial responsibility for oil spills up to $2 billion; the case remained ongoing through year’s end.

A Natural Resource Fund (NRF) bill was passed in 2021, restructuring systems put in place in 2019 to manage oil revenue. Among other things, the bill establishes an oversight committee independent from the Ministry of Finance to boost transparency. However, critics have suggested that further reforms are needed to make the NRF fully independent.

In October 2023, Organization of American States (OAS) anticorruption experts carried out a regular anticorruption review in Guyana.

Although freedom of the press is generally respected, government officials have filed defamation cases against journalists. Criminal defamation charges can be punishable by up to two years in prison.

Journalists have also faced harassment, intimidation, and physical violence. In December 2023, journalist Travis Chase was shot at by an unknown assailant; the Guyana Press Association (GPA) called for a thorough investigation into the incident, which Chase believes to have been connected to his work.

The Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA), whose board is appointed by the president, has been accused of partisan bias in regulatory decisions. The state-owned Guyana Chronicle has been accused of progovernment bias, as has the Guyana Times.

Press freedom has faced challenges during the Ali administration. Journalists have been heckled at public events and harassed online. In April 2023, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released a statement condemning government intimidation of journalists as well as the harassment of journalists by supporters of the ruling party. Civil society groups have alleged that the government and ruling party have worked to stifle critical media. Media outlets deemed unfriendly are sometimes refused access to government press briefings.

In recent years, journalists have been hired by oil firms and government agencies, resulting in less critical reporting on those sectors.

In October 2023, Ubraj Narine, the former mayor of Georgetown, filed a G$200 million (US$914,450) defamation lawsuit against the Guyana Chronicle, claiming it had falsely suggested that he had encouraged the breach of a government contract. The newspaper issued an apology to Narine, which the former mayor said was insufficient.

Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected. Rules limiting visas for foreign missionaries and barring blasphemy are not actively enforced.

Rastafarian groups say that laws criminalizing the possession of 15 grams or more of marijuana infringes on their religious practices.

The Ali administration has indicated that faith groups will have representation on the CRC.

Academic freedom is largely upheld. In September 2023, the government introduced a new curriculum for rural primary schools, which incorporates Indigenous knowledge and environmental awareness and comes as part of a national drive for more equitable and inclusive education programs.

People are generally free to express their views without fear of retaliation, surveillance, or other repercussions.

In November 2023, Vice President Jagdeo filed a G$5 million (US$22,745) libel lawsuit against social media commentator Bryan Mackintosh, known as Bryan Max, after Mackintosh allegedly insinuated in a live broadcast on Facebook that Jagdeo had sent men to cut the brakes on his car.

The authorities generally uphold the right to peaceful assembly. Multiple protests took place in 2023. In March, teachers protesting alleged assaults by students rallied in Georgetown, asking the Ministry of Education to address violence against teachers; in June, civil society groups held protests calling for an impartial investigation into alleged sexual assault and misconduct by a government minister. Silent protests by demonstrators demanding reparations for slavery were held in August when Charles Gladstone, the descendant of John Gladstone—a 19th-century sugar plantation owner and enslaver of more than 2,500 people—visited Guyana to apologize for his family’s actions.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operate freely. The government has consulted with NGOs on various policy initiatives, including measures designed to combat human trafficking.

The rights to form labor unions, bargain collectively, and strike are generally upheld, and unions are well organized. However, laws against antiunion discrimination are poorly enforced.

During 2023, unions criticized the government for using contract workers to fill public-service roles, which union leaders said undermined trade unions and pushed back on workers’ rights. The government said in August that contract labor was needed to fill staff shortages in health care.

The courts are impaired by political disputes, staff shortages, and a lack of resources. The president must obtain the opposition leader’s agreement to appoint the chancellor of the judiciary and the chief justice. Both positions have been held by acting placeholders since 2017.

Other judges are appointed by the president on the advice of a Judicial Service Commission (JSC). The JSC, vacant since 2017, was staffed in July 2023, which observers believe may ease existing burdens on the Guyanese justice system.

Guyanese courts played a mixed role during the 2020 election crisis. The APNU–AFC challenged the legality of the elections; the challenge was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in December 2023.

Due process is unevenly observed. Defendants are often held in pretrial detention beyond their maximum possible sentence. Nearly one-third of the prison population is being held in pretrial detention. Prisons are overcrowded.

Police officers do not always operate with professionalism; some have reportedly accepted bribes and committed a variety of other crimes.

Reports of police violence and extrajudicial killings, abuse of detainees, and harsh prison conditions persist. The rate of violent crime has risen in recent years; according to investigative media outlet InSight Crime, Guyana’s homicide rate increased by 30 percent between 2022 and 2023.

In May 2023, 20 children were killed at a state-run Indigenous boarding school by an alleged act of arson; the student accused of setting the fire was arrested and charged with murder. The government announced in July that it would pay US$25,000 to the parents of each child killed.

Long-standing tensions between Guyana and Venezuela over the oil-rich Essequibo region—which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory, but is claimed by Venezuela—flared in late 2023. In December, the governments of both countries moved troops near the region. Later that month, however, both the Guyanese and Venezuelan governments agreed to avoid the use of force and any further escalation of tensions at a summit held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Indo-Guyanese people, who make up 40 percent of the population, predominate in business. The organization of politics along ethnic lines sometimes sparks communal violence.

Laws barring discrimination based on race, gender, and other categories are not effectively enforced. Women suffer from workplace bias and significantly lower pay.

Guyana’s nine principal Indigenous groups still face disparities in health care, education, and justice.

Guyana’s Prevention of Discrimination Act of 1997 does not mention sexual orientation or gender identity. Same-sex sexual activity between men remains punishable with harsh jail terms, though this is generally not enforced, and the LGBT+ community faces discrimination and police harassment.

There are no undue legal restrictions on freedom of movement, including with respect to residency, employment, and education. However, factors including bribery, racial polarization, and neglected infrastructure in some regions limit this right in practice.

The legal framework generally supports the rights to own property and operate private businesses, but regulations are complex and unevenly enforced, and corruption and organized crime sometimes inhibit business activity.

Indigenous peoples face encroachment and resource exploitation by outsiders. In August 2023, the attorney general reaffirmed the government’s commitment to revising the Amerindian Act of 2006 to bolster Indigenous land rights.

Individual freedom on matters such as marriage and divorce is generally respected, though same-sex marriage and civil unions are prohibited. Marriage before age 18 is allowed with judicial or parental permission and is common. Domestic abuse is widespread, and conviction rates are low.

Legal protections against exploitative working conditions are not enforced consistently. Those working in the informal sector and extractive industries in the country’s interior are particularly vulnerable to abuses.