The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has initiated discussions with representatives from the US, British, Canadian, and European Union (ABCEU) missions in Guyana, regarding support for the upcoming 2025 General and Regional Elections.
GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj told this publication that the discussions aim to explore various forms of electoral assistance, including the potential deployment of observer delegations.
“We met with a delegation from the American, British, Canadian, and European Union missions to discuss providing support for the 2025 General and Regional Elections,” Gunraj stated.
“At this point, it’s a matter of considering what format the support will take. Traditionally, we have received assistance from them… at this point the discussion is to determine what format the support will take. So after having this discussion with them, the next step for us to discuss is what we want and then we will make a formal request to them.”
In light of the challenges faced during the 2020 elections, GECOM’s meeting with the ABCEU countries marks a proactive step towards ensuring a transparent and credible electoral process come 2025.
The 2020 elections in Guyana were marred by significant controversy, with an attempt by the APNU/AFC to rig, drawn-out court battles, and a protracted national recount that extended the electoral process over several months. Following the March 2, 2020 elections results were not officially declared until the end of July, showing that the elections were won by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). President Dr. Irfaan Ali was finally sworn in on August 2, 2020.
During that tumultuous period, the ABCEU missions played a crucial role in advocating for free and fair elections. Their observer teams monitored the electoral process closely, emphasising transparency and credibility.
In light of the past challenges, Gunraj expressed optimism about the upcoming discussions. The GECOM Commissioner indicated that following the meeting with the ABCEU representatives, GECOM would deliberate on the specific support required before formally reaching out to these missions.
At present, former GECOM, Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, Deputy CEO Roxanne Myers and former Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo along with former People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Chairperson Volda Lawrence; PNCR activist Carol Smith-Joseph, and GECOM employees Sheffern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Babb-Cummings, and Michelle Miller are all before the court on election fraud related charges.
They are accused of a number of offences, including misconduct while holding public office, presenting falsified documentation, and planning to manipulate Guyana’s voters by presenting an inaccurate vote total.
These charges stemmed from attempts to rig the 2020 General and Regional Elections in favour of the then ruling A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition. These accused persons are all out on cash bail.
Shortly after GECOM had announced the election results on August 2, 2020, charges were brought against the individuals in question.
The election report of former CEO Lowenfield claimed that the APNU/AFC Coalition garnered 171,825 votes, while the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) gained 166,343 votes. How he arrived at those figures is still unknown, since the certified results from the recount exercise supervised by GECOM and a high-level team from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) pellucidly showed that the PPP/C won with 233,336 votes, while the coalition garnered 217,920.
The recount exercise also highlighted that Mingo had heavily inflated the figures in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) – Guyana’s largest voting district — in favour of the then-caretaker APNU/AFC regime.
In August 2021, GECOM voted to terminate the employment of Lowenfield, Myers, and Mingo.
