As hundreds of thousands of Guyanese remained without electricity since this morning, former Opposition Whip and former A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) parliamentarian Christopher Jones has turned the latest nationwide power crisis into a sharp political indictment of the Government, questioning whether those responsible for managing the country’s electricity system are experiencing the blackout in the same way as ordinary citizens.
At the time of writing, residents across parts of Demerara and Berbice were still without power, leaving households and businesses grappling with the immediate consequences of a prolonged outage.
Jones claimed that approximately 565,499 Guyanese in Demerara and Berbice were affected, before making a pointed reference to a long list of senior Government officials.
“Approximately 565,499 Guyanese in Demerara & Berbice are currently without electricity (Blackout) except…”
He then named President Irfaan Ali, Prime Minister Mark Phillips, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, Attorney General Anil Nandlall and numerous Government ministers and officials.
Among those listed were Gail Teixeira, Ashni Kumar Singh, Hugh Todd, Juan Edghill, Frank Anthony, Vickram Bharrat, Zulfikar Mustapha, Collin Croal, Sonia Parag, Deodat Indar, Charles Ramson Jr., Pauline Campbell-Sukhai, Priya Manickchand, Vindhya Persaud, Oneidge Walrond, Susan Rodrigues and Kwame McCoy.
Jones ended his post with a terse challenge:
“Let that sink in.”
Who really pays the price?
Jones did not provide evidence that the named officials actually had electricity during the outage, and his post appears designed as political commentary rather than a claim based on individually verified power supplies.
But the underlying criticism speaks to a familiar divide between ordinary consumers and senior officials during prolonged electricity failures.
Government ministers, senior officials and wealthy households are far more likely to have access to standby generators or other backup power arrangements. That means a blackout that leaves an ordinary family without refrigeration, fans, lighting, internet access or the ability to operate essential appliances may be little more than an inconvenience to someone with a generator.
For working-class families, however, the consequences can be considerably more costly.
A prolonged outage can mean food spoiling in refrigerators and freezers, businesses losing refrigerated stock, households facing extreme heat and electrical appliances being exposed to damage from power fluctuations when electricity is restored. Small businesses that depend on refrigeration, computers, pumps or other electrical equipment can also suffer direct financial losses.
That contrast gives Jones’ intervention its political bite: whether those making decisions about Guyana’s electricity supply are exposed to the same consequences when the national grid fails.
Power reliability remains a growing concern
The latest outage comes amid heightened concerns about the reliability and capacity of Guyana’s electricity system.
GPL officials have acknowledged that the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System has been under increasing pressure as demand rises. Earlier this month, the utility reported peak demand of about 257 megawatts against installed generation capacity of 265.6 MW, leaving limited reserve capacity when equipment fails or demand surges.
The Government has pointed to major investments intended to modernise the electricity network and improve reliability, including a US$422.2 million transmission and distribution upgrade programme designed in part to accommodate electricity from the 300-megawatt Gas-to-Energy project.
The Government has also said new infrastructure will incorporate greater redundancy so that failures involving individual transmission lines or transformers do not result in widespread outages.
But for consumers sitting without electricity today, those promised improvements offer little immediate comfort.
The political question raised by Jones is therefore broader than today’s blackout: when ordinary Guyanese lose food, income, comfort and potentially appliances every time the power system fails, can the Government credibly claim that those responsible for the system are experiencing the crisis alongside them?
Until the lights come back on, thousands of households will continue to bear the immediate cost—while the people at the top of the political hierarchy face questions about whether they are sitting in the darkness with everyone else, or simply watching it from behind the protection of a generator.
