GECOM to roll out fresh claims and objections exercise from July 1

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will be embarking on a new Claims and Objections exercise with the aim of producing an official voters’ list. This new round of Claims and Objections will run from July 1 to 17 and relates to entries on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) in order to produce an Official List of Electors (OLE).
In a notice published in Guyana Times on Tuesday, the Elections Commission explained that preliminary lists have been posted at prominent locations in all of the Registration Divisions/Sub-Divisions and at all of the GECOM permanent Registration Offices across Guyana. In order to be included on the OLE, persons must be 18-years or older by June 30, 2026, and be a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, or naturalisation, or a citizen of a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more. Eligible persons are also being encouraged to check the PLE to see if their names are included and if not, apply for registration. Those who have changed addresses, their names or need to make corrections to their information listed can also do so during this exercise. They are required to walk with original copies of their source documents such as Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificates, valid passports, deed poll and Naturalisation Certificates when going to make such changes. GECOM had made it clear that it would not accept Baptismal Certificates, expired passports, photocopies of relevant documents or letters from Priests, Elders, Headteachers, Village Toshaos, Justices of the Peace or old ID Cards as source documents for registration. The Claims aspect of this exercise regarding entries on the PLE will end on Tuesday, July 14. 2026. Meanwhile, as it relates to the objection portion, this will run until July 17, 2026. According to GECOM, objections to the inclusion of the name of anyone who is suspected not to have met the eligibility requirements for inclusion on the OLE could be made only by: (i) accredited Scrutineers of Political Parties, providing they have monitoring responsibilities for the Division/Sub-Division in which the person being objected to is listed, and (ii) an elector who is listed on the same Division/Sub- Division list on which the person being objected to is listed.
Persons who are desirous of making Claims and/or Objections are required to visit the GECOM Registration Office or Sub-Office responsible for their respective areas of residence to do so. This exercise comes as Local Government Elections (LGE) is due sometime this year. While no date has been fixed for LGE, the Elections Commission had commenced administrative preparatory works since January. GECOM had issued a vacancy notice for Temporary Trainers to design and develop training materials specifically tailored for the local Government polls.
Moreover, the Commission’s more than $6.9 billion allocation in Budget 2026 also caters for the hosting of the upcoming LGE. In fact, during the consideration of the budget estimates, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, had stated that the allocations cater for the full range of election-related requirements, including temporary Election Day staff, materials and operational needs. “In the budget, they have provided for Local Government Elections, both in terms of temporary Election Day staff…as well as ballots and stuff like that. They have material requirements for elections,” the Minister explained. She further noted that the allocation covers transportation, printing, training of polling day staff, and payments to scrutineers.