Ali was a member of parliament (MP)[10] and served as a cabinet minister under Donald Ramotar until 2015. In 2020, he became the presidential candidate for the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C). He won the March 2020 general election. He was sworn in as Guyana's tenth president on 2 August 2020, months after his win, due to extensive legal challenges regarding the integrity of the election and a recount of all electoral ballots.[11]
Early life and education
Ali was born into an Indo-GuyaneseMuslim family to Bibi Shariman Neshaw and Mohamed Osman Ali in Leonora, a village in the West Coast Demerara region of Guyana. The child of two educators and one of two sons, Ali also spent many of his formative years on the island of Leguan. His maternal great-great-great grandparents were Ujiari and Bujhawan who were from Basi village, Telogepur thana in Basti district in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. Ali is descended from them through their son Dildar. Dildar, Ujiari, and her four other children and a daughter-in-law immigrated to then British Guiana as indentured laborers in 1894 aboard the ship Rhine. They were indentured to Plantation Success in Leguan.[12]
He is a former student of the Leonora Nursery and Primary schools and Cornelia Ida Primary. Ali completed his secondary education at St. Stanislaus College in Georgetown, Guyana.[13][14]
Ali served as project manager of the Caribbean Development Bank's Project Implementation Unit in the Ministry of Finance, and as a senior planner in the State Planning Secretariat.[17]
Early political career
Ali became a member of the National Assembly of Guyana in 2006. He was appointed to the portfolios of minister of housing and water[18] and minister of tourism industry and commerce.[19]
Irfaan Ali was the presidential candidate of the People's Progressive Party (PPP/C) for the 2 March 2020 general and regional elections in Guyana.[21] He was selected as the presidential candidate for the People's Progressive Party/Civic on 19 January 2019.[22] His selection came at a time after Ali had been charged with 19 counts of conspiracy and fraud by Guyana's Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU).[23] Ali's lawyers questioned the legality of these charges, and claimed that they were political in nature and "trumped up".[23] At the time when Ali was running for president, the charges had never been brought to a full court hearing.
Immediately following his selection, Ali was accused of academic fraud, with opponents claiming that when Ali was in his early 20s, he had misrepresented one of his qualifications.[24] Ali was also indicted on 19 charges of other fraud for allegedly defrauding the state of over $174M between 2011 and 2015, allegedly conspiring with persons unknown to "greatly undersell" 19 plots of state lands at Plantation Sparendaam and Goedverwagting in Demerara-Mahaica to current or former government officials.[25]
The trial on the matters was postponed several times. He was granted self bail on the charges. The lands, which were sold for $39.8M, are valued at $212.4M, according to the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU).[25] On 14 August, the charges were dismissed.[26]
Campaign
In his 2020 campaign for the presidency, Ali ran on a mainly economic platform, citing declining growth and increased joblessness under the Granger administration.[27] Ali committed to creating 50,000 new jobs over five years.[28] He has emphasized the need for transparency and adherence to globally-recognised standards for Guyana's nascent oil sector, which is expected to transform Guyana's development. Ali is committed to establishing a sovereign wealth fund "protected against political interference", and to strengthen Guyana's ability to uphold the Santiago Principles and the global requirements of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Ali with U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo, September 2020
In September 2020, in a joint statement with the United Statessecretary of stateMike Pompeo, Ali said the two countries would begin joint maritime patrols aimed at drug interdiction near Guyana's disputed border with crisis-stricken Venezuela.[29] The agreement came as U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp, as part of a consortium with Hess Corp, ramped up crude output from Guyana's massive offshore Stabroek block, a large portion of which is in waters claimed by Venezuela.[29] Pompeo and Ali added that "greater security, greater capacity to understand your border space, what's happening inside your Exclusive Economic Zone - those are all things that give Guyana sovereignty."[30]
Honours and awards
Ali is a recipient of the following honours:
In 2023, the Government of India conferred the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Overseas Indian Award) to Ali in recognition of his contribution in "Politics/Community Welfare" and for "outstanding achievements both in India and abroad".[31]
In 2023, the Government of Barbados conferred the Order of Freedom of Barbados to Ali "in recognition of his strong commitment to enhance cooperation to achieve regional cooperation and collaboration to achieve regional integration and foster deeper social and economic partnerships particularly in relation to Food and Nutrition Security and for the upliftment of the people of Barbados and the region."[32]
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