2025 elections a key test to show commitment to credible, peaceful & democratic processes – EU Mission Chief

…as Election Observation Mission begins work

As Guyana prepares to head to the polls on September 1, the European Union says the upcoming General and Regional Elections will be a critical event for the country to prove its commitment to credible and democratic electoral processes.
The EU has dispatched its Election Observation Mission to Guyana (EU EOM) which commenced work on Thursday, engaging local political stakeholders. The team is headed by Member of the European Parliament, Robert Biedro?.
“The elections in September will be an important moment for Guyana to demonstrate its continued commitment to credible and peaceful democratic processes,” Biedro? said in a brief statement posted to the EU Election Observation Mission Guyana 2025 social media page.

According to the EU EOM’s Chief Observer, “At this pivotal time of economic transformation, upholding democratic principles and human rights is especially important and Guyana has the opportunity to continue setting a strong example.”
As the Chief Observer, Biedro? will oversee the mission’s efforts to observe the September 1 General and Regional Elections in Guyana as part of the EU’s commitment to human rights, democracy, and credible elections in Guyana and around the world.

Biedro? commenced his work in Guyana on Thursday with a round of visits to stakeholders who will be involved in the election process, including public officials and political candidates.
The members of the EU EOM Core Team started off the series of meetings on Thursday by engaging Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George to discuss the role of the Judiciary in the electoral process. That meeting was held at the Chief Justice’s Chambers at the High Court in Georgetown.
The EU EOM then met with officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Biedro? discussed GECOM’s preparedness and other issues of electoral importance for next month’s General and Regional Elections with the Commissioners.
GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh; Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud; and Deputy CEO Aneal Giddings, along with Government-nominated Commissioner Manoj Narayan and Opposition-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander, engaged the EU EOM at the Commission’s High Street, Kingston headquarters.

Electoral context and key issues
Chief Observer Biedro? and his team then met with President Dr Irfaan Ali and Prime Minister, Brigadier (Retired) Mark Phillips, who are both returning on the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) ticket to seek a second term in office.
Joined by PPP’s Executive Secretary and current Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, at State House on Thursday, the Government delegation and the EU EOM members discussed the electoral context and key issues ahead of the upcoming polls.
Similarly, Biedro? led his core team to engage the Presidential Candidate of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) coalition, Aubrey Norton, and other party members including Ganesh Mahipaul at Congress Place, where they discussed the party’s participation in the upcoming elections.
To end off the day of meetings, the EU EOM met with the Alliance For Change (AFC) Presidential Candidate Nigel Hughes and other party members on preparations for the September 1 polls.
Biedro? is expected to continue his work in Guyana today with the hosting of the EU EOM delegation’s first press conference at 11:30h during which he will apprise the media on the work and mandate of the EU EOM in preparation for Guyana’s General and Regional Elections.

Blatant attempts to steal
The dispatch of this 2025 Election Observation Mission to monitor the upcoming polls in Guyana comes on the heels of the international community, including the EU, playing a crucial role in ensuring that democracy prevailed following the historic March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections. At the time, Guyana was plunged in a political deadlock for five months as a result of blatant attempts to steal the elections by some senior electoral officials with the aim of keeping the then A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition regime in power.
At those elections, the then EU EOM was the largest foreign group here, having deployed 55 observers to monitor the opening, polling, counting and tabulation processes in all 10 regions.
In its final report, the Mission found that while the voting and counting were well managed all over the country along with the tabulation of results in nine of Guyana’s 10 regions, the tabulation process was abruptly stalled in Region Four – the country’s largest and decisive voting district. The EU EOM had said, “…the integrity of the entire electoral process was seriously compromised by the non-transparent and non-credible tabulation of results in the largest and decisive Region Four by senior GECOM officials acting in blatant violation of the law and High Court orders issued in this regard.”
At the centre of those allegations are former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, and then Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo, who allegedly blatantly inflated figures in favour of the APNU/AFC. Both Lowenfield and Mingo, along with other GECOM staff and senior APNU/AFC members, have since been slapped with a slew of electoral fraud charges that are still pending before the local courts.
Meanwhile, in its final report on the March 2020 elections, the previous EU EOM had made some 26 recommendations on diverse aspects of the elections, including the legal framework, election administration, the campaign and campaign financing, the media and social media, and electoral dispute resolution – all aimed at improving future electoral processes in Guyana. Of those recommendations, eight had been identified as priority, which the EU says could have the most positive impact on the elections if implemented.
Two years ago, the EU had deployed an Election Follow-up Mission (EFM) to assess Guyana’s progress towards electoral reform. In May 2023, the EFM disclosed that two of the EU’s priority recommendations were implemented in full by the Guyana Government through amendments to the Representation of People (Amendment) Act and the National Registration (Amendment) Act that were made in 2022.