By: Trichell Sobers
As the 2025 General and Regional Elections in Guyana looms, formal preparations remain on hold, with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) awaiting an announcement on a date from President Dr Irfaan Ali.
In an interview with the publication on Tuesday, the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of the elections body, Vishnu Persaud confirmed that GECOM is unable to initiate its official preparations for the elections until the President announces the official date for the hosting of the General and Regional elections.
While the commission has expressed confidence in its ability to conduct the elections within the constitutional timeline, it has yet to receive the formal mandate to proceed with the necessary groundwork.
Persaud emphasised the importance of an exact election date, which he explained is crucial for devising a comprehensive and effective operational strategy. Without this key piece of information, GECOM cannot fully mobilise its resources or begin the intricate planning needed to ensure a smooth electoral process.
“We will be unable to really kick into formal preparations for elections until an election date has been called by the President, because if we’re going to have a war plan, a war plan must have an objective date.”
“But what we have done, as you would have seen being advertised in your newspaper, we have started what we term preliminary preparations, which does not necessarily require the naming of a date for elections because it’s something that we have to do,” the CEO added.
Despite the lack of a formal timeline, GECOM has initiated preliminary activities, focusing on recruitment and training. Notably, advertisements have been published to attract applicants, but the Commission has not yet begun shortlisting candidates or scheduling training sessions.
Meanwhile, when asked about critical preparations, such as the introduction of cameras at polling stations and the use of biometrics, Persaud revealed that these issues remain unresolved.
Further, he explained that on the matter of biometric technology, discussions within the Commission remain inconclusive.
“As it relates to cameras at polling stations and biometrics a proposal for the introduction of cameras at polling stations has not been discussed by the Commission. So, there is nothing that I can report on that. In terms of the discussions on the issue of biometrics, the Commission engaged in discussions”.
“Those discussions are inconclusive, but the Commission went into recess and should have met today. But for reasons beyond me, the meeting was called off for lack of a quorum,” he shared.
The main Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance for Change (AFC) have been pushing for the implementation of biometrics, and have reiterated their preparedness to support the necessary stages to arrive at an outcome, including enacting constitutional and statutory changes, if necessary.
On the other hand, the General Secretary of the ruling PPP, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, had rejected these proposals, contending that the PPP would never support proposals that hinder the process, and would not fall for the traps being set by the Opposition to delay the holding of elections in 2025.
In response to concerns about outstanding issues potentially delaying election preparations, the GECOM’s CEO reassured the public that no critical obstacles exist.
“I don’t see that anything is outstanding that is critical to the preparation for our conduct of elections as the CEO, based on what the laws permit me to do, in so far as preparation for the conduct of elections is concerned,” Persaud added.
In addition, as the Claims and Objections period continues, over 1700 citizens have already applied for their names to be included in the revised voters list.
The preliminary list of electors was published on December 24 and as a consequence, GECOM is currently conducting Claims and Objections.
During the period of January 2 to January 15, 2025, claims for persons to be included on the list are facilitated.
The qualifying date for electors to be 18 years old, is December 31, 2024. This means that persons who have reached the age of 18 years and older as of December 31, 2024, and are Guyanese citizens by birth, descent or naturalisation or citizens from a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more, are eligible to vote in this year’s General and Regional elections.
In a separate interview with this publication, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward, disclosed that to date, over 1,700 persons have applied to be included in the revised list of electors.
Further, she explained that during the Claims and Objections period, persons can also make objections to the preliminary voters list. The deadline for objections is January 22, 2025.
Objections typically allow persons the opportunity to contest the inclusion of the names of any deceased individuals on the preliminary list.
Ward, nevertheless explained that in addition to new registrants, GECOM has received 334 applications for transfer, 128 requests for changes and corrections to personal details, and 749 applications for replacement Identification cards.
She also disclosed that 92 individuals also applied for photo retakes, and only one formal objection has been registered so far.
“We have 29 offices countrywide and so the exercise is happening at all of our registration offices across the country. And today, the process has been smooth. There are no hiccups in the exercise”.
“I must say that we have extended work, you know, during this claims and objections period. Our offices are open Monday to Friday from 8:00h to 18:00h. And Saturday and Sunday from 10:00h to 14:00h. So, during this claims and objections period, we have those extended working hours to ensure that persons are afforded that opportunity, to ensure that they get their registration transactions done. And so, one, they’re included on the official list of electors” the PRO shared.
GECOM has appointed January 25, 2025, as the day by which all forms of claims, objections, applications and decisions will be sent by the registration officers to the Commissioner of Registration.
The CEO, Vishnu Persaud will then begin hearing and determining appeals the very next day. Additionally, any changes to the preliminary list will be made by February 2, 2025.
Meanwhile, Ward explained that once the Claims and Objections period concludes, the commission will move toward publishing the revised list of electors, which will reflect all updates made during this period.
“When the Claims and Objections exercise closes, as you know, the preliminary list is published right now. We will move into a revised list of electors, and then we will publish that official list of electors. So, there is a process involved. So, when we publish the revised list of electors, all the transactions that were done during this period should be reflected there. We give people the opportunity to scrutinise to ensure that the CD updates and all of that, and then we move towards producing that official list of electors,” she added.
For those unable to visit registration offices in person, GECOM has introduced an online query tool on its website, allowing citizens to check their registration information remotely.
