Dear Editor,
The Guyana Elections Commission must be complimented for the demonstrated and transparent consistency in the advancement of its works in preparation for National and Regional Elections on September 01, 2025.The globally recognised International Electoral Observer Mission, the Carter Center, along with other leading political and civil organisations in Guyana, hails Guyana’s electoral reforms and readiness for these elections.
Guyana heads into this new election cycle with a reformed legal and electoral framework, which certainly improves transparency in the vote tabulation process and modernises voter registration. The Observer Missions have lauded the important transitional changes and reforms adopted in Guyana’s enhanced legal and electoral system since the country’s last National Election in 2020. These reforms also have significant relevance, particularly in the areas of vote tabulation and voters’ registration.
The Carter Center recognises the most substantial changes, including the sub-district tabulation in select regions and new requirements for simultaneous electronic public posting and transmission of polling station results, as well as the obligations of presiding officers to ensure transparency during the counting and closing procedures. Of recognised significance is the very important designation of continuous registration cycles, followed by the claims and objection processes, which give the nation an opportunity to remove the names of any proven deceased persons from the list.
During the Continuous Registration process, all the main political parties had the option of having scrutineers observing the process and signing off on all transactions. After, a thorough house-to-house continuous registration along with the claims and objections period, which is verified by political parties’ paid scrutineers, GECOM successfully produced the final list of voters. GECOM must be congratulated, along with the political party scrutineers, for a thorough job in producing the 2025 Official List of Electors (OLE), fully certified on July 29th. The OLE now registered 757,690 names, including 376,703 men and 380,987 women.
Guyanese are accustomed to the “naysayers” of convenience who have sought to offer comments on the list. It was not too long ago that the legal basis for retaining the names of persons not proven to be dead on the voters list was established. In fact, this position has its basis in the recent precedent ruling of the High Court, which cannot be ignored for superfluous suitability.
In context, it is important to acknowledge the Carter Center comments on the issues to which it stated, “While the relative size of the OLE raises concerns for some persons, the Carter Center has not received evidence of inflation of the voter roll.”
GECOM will now have to provide for the immediate online publication of Statements of Polls (SoPs). SoPs will now be available to all the relevant persons and will never again be a document to search for.
Guyana is now fully ready for free and fair elections.
Yours sincerely,
Neil Kumar
