Bharrat Jagdeo

In 1912, his grandfather, Ram Jiyawan had immigrated under the Indian indenture system to British Guiana from the village of Pure Thakurain in the Amethi district of the Awadh region of the United Provinces in British India (present-day state of Uttar Pradesh in India).

During his visit to India once, Jagdeo went to his ancestral village and it was found that a community of salt makers called Nonias happened to be the community from which his ancestors belonged to.

Jagdeo joined the youth wing of the People's Progressive Party (PPP), the Progressive Youth Organisation, when he was 13, and became a member of the PPP itself at age 16.

He subsequently rose to local leadership positions in the party.

Bharrat Jagdeo (born 23 January 1964) is a Guyanese politician who has been serving as Vice President of Guyana since 2020, in the administration of President Irfaan Ali.

Jagdeo was born in Unity Village in Demerara-Mahaica, in then British Guiana in 1964 to Hindu Indian parents.

He attended Bygeval Multilateral High School before migrating to Russia in 1984 for higher studies.

After obtaining a master's degree in economics from Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow in 1990, Jagdeo returned to Guyana and worked as an economist in the State Planning Secretariat until the PPP-Civic election victory in the October 1992 election.

After this he became Special Advisor to the Minister of Finance.

Jagdeo was appointed as Junior Minister of Finance in October 1993, and a few weeks later, at the PPP's 24th Congress, he was elected to the party's Central Committee.

He later became a member of the executive committee of the PPP.

Jagdeo, a member of the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), served as Minister of Finance from 1995 to 1999, becoming president in 1999 after Janet Jagan resigned for health reasons.

In the Cabinet, he was promoted to Senior Minister of Finance in May 1995.

He had previously also held the office from 1997 until 1999, during the presidency of Janet Jagan.

In December 1997, he was appointed as the Second Vice President.

Jagdeo subsequently served as the President of Guyana from 11 August 1999 to 3 December 2011.

He also holds a number of global leadership positions in the areas of sustainable development, green growth and climate change.

On 8 August 1999, Janet Jagan announced that she was resigning as president for health reasons, and that Jagdeo would be her successor.

Because the Prime Minister is the President's legal successor, Jagdeo took office as Prime Minister on 9 August, so that he would be positioned to succeed Jagan.

He was then sworn in as president on 11 August.

At age 35, he was one of the youngest heads of state in the world.

Subsequently, he won two elections, in 2001 and 2006.

He was the first and youngest President of Guyana to relinquish office in accordance with term limits he signed into the Guyanese Constitution.

Jagdeo was re-elected for another five-year term on 28 August 2006, with the PPP garnering 54.6 percent of the votes.

It expanded its majority, by two, to 36 seats in the 65-member parliament.

He was sworn in for another term on 2 September.

External debt had been almost halved, and reserves had almost tripled compared to the 2006 situation.

During the presidency, investments had been made in social services which resulted in improved access to education.

The housing sector saw its biggest expansion in its history.

At the PPP's 29th Congress, Jagdeo received the highest number of votes (777) in the election to the party's Central Committee, held on 2 August 2008.

He was then elected to the PPP Executive Committee on 12 August 2008.

In late 2011, his term of office officially came to an end as a result of the term limit amendment to the Constitution, piloted by his government, and signed into law by himself, which created a two-term limit for anyone elected president after 2000.

He was succeeded by PPP/C presidential candidate Donald Ramotar, who was elected president in the 28 November 2011 general elections.

Under the Constitution, President Jagdeo's term officially ended on 3 December 2011, when Ramotar took the presidential oath of office.

During Jagdeo's tenure as president, major economic and social reforms were initiated in Guyana.

When he relinquished office, Guyana had experienced five consecutive years of strong economic growth, often out-pacing other South American countries.

Following the PPP/C's electoral defeat in 2015 Jagdeo became Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly.

Furthermore, when the PPP/C returned to power in 2020, Jagdeo was sworn in as a vice president in the administration of president Irfaan Ali.

Vice News alleged that it had uncovered corruption by Jagdeo and several Chinese businessmen.

These allegations were rejected by Jagdeo who pointed out instead, that the Vice News documentary failed to provide irrefutable evidence to substantiate its claims and it mostly relied on hearsay and comments by a Chinese businessman Su Zhi Rong against whom he has filed a defamation lawsuit.