Your Tuesday rundown from all four papers. Grab your coffee, this one’s spicy.
🏅 Ali Gets Medal, Country Gets More Promises
President Ali popped across to Boa Vista on Monday and came back wearing the Medalha Forte São Joaquim — Roraima’s highest honour — presented by Governor Antonio Denarium. The Chronicle gave it the full red-carpet treatment, naturally.
Ali talked about “removing barriers to trade, improving connectivity, and creating an enabling environment for private-sector engagement” with Brazil. You know, all the things we’ve been talking about since approximately 1966.
To be fair, the Guyana-Roraima corridor has genuine economic potential — food security, energy collaboration, transport linkages. But if you’ve driven the road to Lethem recently, you know “improved transport linkages” is doing some heavy lifting as a phrase.
SCORECARD: 🏅 Medal received: 1 | 🛣️ Roads to Lethem actually fixed: TBD
🏛️ Committee of Supply: Where Numbers Go to Be Interrogated
The National Assembly turned itself into the Committee of Supply on Monday, and the estimates got a proper working-over. Here’s your cheat sheet:
| Allocation | Amount | The Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Commissioner of Information | $40M | Hasn’t produced an annual report in over a decade. Charles Ramson Snr reportedly gives “derisive responses” to public requests. Forty million dollars for a man who apparently treats accountability like an optional hobby. |
| Opposition Leader’s Office | $34M | Approved, though Opposition Leader Mohamed says he STILL hasn’t received a vehicle or security, weeks after his election. Apparently “transition” means “wait.” |
| Police Promotions | 645 officers | Under consideration, but the Police Service Commission itself has two vacancies after two members died. Who promotes the promoters? |
| PYAC (Youth Council) | $75M | Virtual academic lessons, healthy living campaigns, and a “national youth cloud database.” Because what 22-year-olds really want is another government database. |
| Lands & Surveys | $119M | New housing and agricultural lands from June. Minister Teixeira says it’s coming. Lindeners: “We’ve heard this one before.” |
| Teaching Service | — | 2,800 vacancies for senior teachers. Two thousand eight hundred. Let that marinate. |
📋 GECOM Says: Check Yuh Name
The Revised List of Electors is now published for 21 days of public scrutiny, effective February 7. This is for the upcoming Local Government Elections, and GECOM is practically begging people to verify their registration.
Here’s the thing — GECOM itself has vacancies for the Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Assistant CEO, Legal Officer, IT Manager, Research Officer, and Chief Accountant. That’s not a staffing problem. That’s a skeleton crew running an election.
Money has been set aside in the $6.9 billion GECOM allocation for LGE. But as Demerara Waves noted, GECOM “has not met in recent times” due to questions about whether three commissioners still properly represent the new opposition landscape.
Translation: We have money for an election, a voters list for an election, and no functioning commission to run the election. Peak Guyana.
🔥 Kaieteur Says PPP “Lost” the Budget Debate
The Kaieteur editorial didn’t hold back. For five years, they write, the PPP’s parliamentary strategy was to endlessly rehearse APNU+AFC’s failures from 2015-2020. It worked because APNU couldn’t defend their own record coherently.
But now? The PPP has its OWN record — “visible and unavoidable.” The old playbook of going after the previous government “landed with diminishing force, like blows delivered long after the opponent has moved on.”
The paper says PPP MPs were “crass, ill-mannered, shallow, condescending, and at times outright disgraceful” during budget debates. And they argue WIN Leader Mohamed surprised everyone by delivering a coherent presentation. “They said he couldn’t talk. He spoke.”
The Chronicle, meanwhile, ran editorials about opposition politicians grabbing “poverty statistics as a drowning person grabs for driftwood.” So the duelling narratives are fully engaged.
🕵️ Extradition Saga: Now With a Mystery Second Request
Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed’s extradition hearing was postponed Monday — he’s reportedly unwell. But the real bombshell: a Permanent Secretary admitted in court that a SECOND extradition request from the US was received on November 25, 2025.
Minister Hugh Todd publicly denied receiving another request. The Permanent Secretary, under cross-examination, said otherwise. Someone’s story doesn’t add up, and it’s not a small discrepancy.
No one knows who the second request is for. The government isn’t saying. The opposition isn’t saying. The court isn’t saying. Classic Guyana: everyone knows something, nobody’s talking.
🔐 Data Protection: 30 Months Late, But Who’s Counting?
Stabroek’s editorial took the government to task for finally appointing a Data Protection Commissioner — roughly 30 months after passing the Data Protection Act. The paper called it “another telling example of how PPP/C governments have toyed with important pieces of legislation.”
And then Stabroek dropped the real bomb: people who gave their contact information for the $100,000 cash grant were later contacted by PPP operatives asking for their vote before the September 2025 elections.
If your grant application data was used for campaign calls, that’s exactly the kind of breach a Data Protection Commissioner should investigate. Assuming the Commissioner actually starts working before the next election.
🏥 Brand New Hospital Already Flooding
WIN MP Sarabo-Halley used her budget debate presentation to highlight that a $6.6 billion, 75-bed regional hospital commissioned just six months ago is already experiencing flooding. No forensic engineering assessment has been released. No one has been held accountable.
She also delivered the line of the week: “Too many Guyanese believe that political affiliation determines opportunity.”
⚡ Quick Hits
Kato Hydro Plant operational — 24 buildings now powered in the indigenous community, 17 residents employed including 5 women trained in plant operations. This is genuinely good news. More of this, please.
158 contractors bid for $10B Leonora works — That’s a lot of construction companies smelling money. Infrastructure development or infrastructure feeding frenzy? Time will tell.
Guns, ganja, and arrests in Linden — Three 9mm pistols and cannabis found in a truck at Amelia’s Ward. Two arrested. Linden staying Linden.
Drone over Minister’s home — Minister Browne-Shadeek says WIN flew a drone over her husband’s residence. GCAA immediately reminded everyone that’s illegal. WIN has not commented. The drone wars have begun.
Gold miner chopped to death at Issano — A 55-year-old from Wismar killed at a mining camp. A cook and a miner arrested. The interior remains its own country.
🏏 Windies Watch
West Indies beat Scotland in their T20 World Cup opener! Sherfane Rutherford smashed 26 off 13 balls, Gudakesh Motie took 1-29. Guyanese players performing. The Caribbean can breathe… for now.
Guyana’s U-17s fought hard but lost to Honduras in the CONCACAF qualifiers. The boys gave it their all.
That’s your Tuesday. Budget estimates getting grilled, voters lists getting published, hospitals getting flooded, and the President getting medals. Just another day in the Co-operative Republic.
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