While the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) secretariat has not been mandated by the commission to prepare for the constitutionally due general and regional elections, the secretariat has taken it upon itself to prepare for such an eventuality and ensure it is in a state of readiness.
During a press conference last Friday, GECOM Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud explained what kind of preparation the secretariat has begun. These preparations, according to Persaud, do not necessarily require direction from the commission.
“At this time, the secretariat has not been mandated by the commission to formally engage in preparations for elections. That notwithstanding, we are aware of our responsibility as it relates to ensuring we are prepared and ready for the conduct of elections.”
“I do not see such preparations posing any difficulties for us at the secretariat, since the procedures have not changed. However, there are some prerequisites which do not require direction from the commission,” Persaud said.
For instance, GECOM has been reviewing the training manuals that will guide its officers in the conduct of the election. These training manuals came into force after the many controversies that accompanied the 2020 General and Regional elections.
“Training, per se, does not form a part of the electoral cycle which usually spans about six months. So, in that regard, we are currently reviewing the manuals for, in the first instance, presiding officers and polling day staff. We have completed the first manual.”
“And in the second instance, we are looking at the manual for returning officers and other management staff like the clerks and the deputy returning officers. That exercise is likely to be completed by the end of (this) week,” Persaud explained.
Following this, the CEO noted that GECOM’s focus will move on to identifying persons to be trained to work for GECOM in the elections. This will start with the training of the trainers, something that will be advertised for soon. Additionally, Persaud pointed out that the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) provides for regions three, four and six to be split into sub-regions and for the appointment of supernumerary returning officers.
“Our focus will be to move to identifying persons to be trained to work for the elections, starting with the training of trainers for appointment to go into further training. We’re likely to advertise for the appointment of those persons in December, so the training can be done in January,” Persaud said.
“Then we will move to the management staff, that being candidates for the positions of returning officers, clerks and deputy returning officers. Those of you may be aware, the law now authorizes those three regions be split into sub-regions, from which supernumerary officers will be appointed. And this is all to facilitate tabulation of the results in those huge districts.”
According to Persaud, they will eventually be printing these manuals. He assured that this would be done via public procurement. Additionally, he noted that the law requires the publication of these manuals on the website. This, too, will be done.
With elections constitutionally due next year, GECOM has already engaged representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union regarding sending observer missions to Guyana for next year’s polls.
Last month, the ABCE diplomatic missions in Guyana – United States, Britain, Canada and the European Union – had also engaged GECOM on support for the upcoming polls, which is likely to be held in November 2025.
In August 2024, GECOM’s spokeswoman Yolanda Ward had said that in preparation for the 2025 General and Regional elections, GECOM is considering proposals for installing cameras in polling stations and a biometrics feasibility study to enhance safeguards against misconduct.
Ward was at the time responding to the matter raised by the Alliance For Change (AFC) regarding election safeguards. AFC, which was previously part of APNU that had attempted to rig the 2020 National and Regional election, has been calling for biometrics such as fingerprints to be implemented by GECOM for the next elections.
However, GECOM had warned that they could not make such a significant change to the electoral procedure unless there is legislation to back it up. Indeed, the addition of ID cards in the 1997 elections, was one of the grounds on which the validity of the entire election was overturned in court and even that electoral change came from an act of Parliament.
