Irfaan Ali (25 April 1980-) was President of Guyana from 2 August 2020, succeeding David A. Granger.
Biography[]
Mohamed Irfaan Ali was born in Leonora, Guyana in 1980, and he came from an Indian Muslim family. Ali worked in the banking industry before becoming an MP in 2006 and serving as Housing and Water Minister from 2009 to 2015. Ali was charged with 19 counts of conspiracy and fraud in 2019 (including the misrepresentation of one of his qualifications, defrauding the state of $174 million, and greatly underselling 19 plots of state lands to government officials), although he claimed that the charges were political in nature, and he went on to be elected President, defeating incumbent David A. Granger by promising to reverse Guyana's declining growth and increased joblessness. Ali cooperated with the United States to begin joint maritime patrols aimed at drug interdiction near the Venezuelan border, and, in 2023, he also presided over his country's confrontation with Venezuela amid the 2023 Guayana Esequiba crisis.