2025 elections : “Nothing could be further from the truth” – Jagdeo slams election instability fears

People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Tuesday pushed back on the naysayers, particularly those abroad who speculate that Guyana is on the brink of instability in an election year, making it clear that nothing could be further from the truth.
The Vice President was at the time being interviewed at the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo (GECSCE) by Ambassador Carlos Pascual, the Senior Vice President of financial analytic company S&P Global. Asked about the confidence of the people in the transparency of the election process, Jagdeo had this to say.
“We believe that, given the work we’ve done, that we’ll win the elections. But you ask about transparency and stability. In 2020 we had a very peculiar situation. Where five months after the elections were held, President Ali was sworn in. With several attempts to thwart the will of the people,” he said.
According to Jagdeo, even with these bold attempts by Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) operatives to derail the election results, the Guyanese people did not riot. He pointed out that even though some countries have descended into civil war for election disputes, Guyanese demonstrated their maturity by waiting for the conclusion of the election process.

“Sometimes the first thing you read about Guyana, anywhere in the world, is a country with complex ethnic relations. And they make us look like we’re on the precipice of civil war. Because of our rich heritage, the Indigenous people, nine different tribes of people, many of our ancestors from Africa, Asia, India or Europe.”
“And in that period, the five months period, I say to people that in countries that are ethnically homogenous. Look around the world. If you have an attempt to steal an election, and five months thereon you don’t get a result, many of those countries would have gone into civil war or violence. Our people demonstrated maturity, in spite of provocation,” Jagdeo pointed out.
The Vice President noted that the system was given a chance to work and it did, as in July 2020 the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) unanimously ruled that efforts by GECOM at the time to invalidate over 100,000 valid votes and hand the then ruling A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government an election win, were unlawful. President Dr Irfaan Ali was sworn in as President the next month.
“Secretary Pompeo and the others, who are here today, the international community, took a strong position. And the right result prevailed. And so, if we could have withstood that, five months of provocation and delay, in a country like ours that is so ethnically complex as people say, it’s a proud thing. It shows the maturity of our society. I’m proud of that.”
“It really irks me… every analysis you see abroad, they make us look like we’re on the verge of instability. We’re not. We’ve come through a very long period of practical dictatorship, rigging of elections, but our people have lived and worked together in a united way. The sense of country is growing and all our people are benefitting from the prosperity now. At least we attempt to ensure that happens,” Jagdeo explained.
With General and Regional Elections slated for later this year, President Ali as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, while acknowledging the low probability of violence, had nevertheless recently called on the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to be vigilant against any attempt to unsettle the order at the upcoming polls.
“While we do not anticipate unrest or anything that is contrary to the rule of law, we must remain vigilant against any attempt to unsettle internal order. The Defence Force will be on standby, prepared to act if necessary to uphold stability and protect the democratic process,” President Ali had said at the opening of the GDF’s Annual Officers’ Conference 2025.
While no date has been set, the 2025 elections are likely to be held in November. It will follow the March 2020 General and Regional Elections that were embroiled in controversy following blatant attempts by the then APNU/AFC Administration to rig the elections in order to stay in power.
The PPP/C was sworn into office five months after the March 2, 2020 polls. Several senior staff of GECOM along with political activists are currently before the courts for various electoral fraud charges.