President Dr Irfaan Ali, who is also Presidential Candidate for the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), has met with representatives of several Elections Observation Missions (EOM) that are in Guyana to monitor the upcoming General and Regional Elections on Monday, September 1, 2025.
Among the groups he met with was the Organisation of American States (OAS) Electoral Observation Mission. Former Jamaican Prime Minister (PM), Bruce Golding, is leading the 27-member OAS mission in Guyana.
Golding, along with core members of the team including Deputy Chief of Mission Melene Glynn, Specialists Coordinator Clarissa Ribeiro, and Press Officer Diego Paez attended the recent engagement with President Ali at State House in Georgetown.
During the engagement, President Ali briefed the team on electoral legislative amendments to prevent the reoccurrence of the attempted rigging that occurred in 2020. He explained that the changes were also based on recommendations from previous electoral observer mission reports. The Head of State further shared that the Government is committed to the constitutional reform process to promote democracy. During the recent engagement, President Ali was joined by key members of his Cabinet including Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall; Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira; and Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, who is also the PPP/C’s Executive Secretary. Together, they underscored the Government’s commitment to strengthening democratic institutions and highlighted the critical role of the OAS in safeguarding transparency and integrity throughout Guyana’s electoral process.
At the March 2, 2020 elections in Guyana, Golding that also headed the OAS mission here and had said in his preliminary report that he “has never seen a more transparent effort to alter the results of an election.” This was after the senior officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) attempted to inflate voting figures from Region Four in favour of the then A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition regime. Golding had said in his statement that, “It takes an extraordinarily courageous mind to present fictitious numbers when such a sturdy paper trail exists.”
The OAS EOM comprises 27 experts and observers from 18 countries. The Mission will focus its work on electoral organisation and registries, electoral technology, political-electoral financing, electoral justice and the political participation of women. This will allow the team to analyse the process in a structured and technically rigorous manner. Meanwhile, the President also met with the United States (US)-based Carter Center Observation Mission that is here for Monday’s General and Regional Elections. During the engagement at State House, the team was led by its Leader of Mission Jason Carter. Additionally, President Ali and his Cabinet Ministers also met with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Electoral Observer Mission (CEOM) that is currently in Guyana to observe Monday’s election. Chief of Mission Josephine Tamai from Belize, led the CARICOM team to meet the Government officials on Friday at State House.
The CARICOM Mission also met with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) party officials on Friday. CARICOM has mounted a 10-member Election Observation Mission to observe the electoral processes for the General and Regional Elections, from August 26 to September 3, 2025. The Mission comprises Electoral Officials from eight CARICOM Member States. In addition to Tamai, who is the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of the Elections and Boundaries Department of Belize, the other members of the CEOM are Deputy Chief of Mission, Ian Hughes, who is a Supervisor of Elections in Antigua and Barbuda; Harrison L Thompson, a Parliamentary Commissioner in The Bahamas; Fatima Gordon, a Supervisor of Registering Officers, Elections and Boundaries Department also from Belize; Ambassador Felix Gregoire, Chairman of the Public Service Commission in Dominica; Michael Paul Millette, an Information Systems Administrator at the Grenada Parliamentary Elections Office; Herman St Helen, the CEO in Saint Lucia; Reita Joemratie and Sonja Galimo, Members of the Independent Electoral Council in Suriname; and Lena Champa Sahadeo, Deputy Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago. The CEOM will be supported by eight staff members from the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown.
In a statement on Friday, CARICOM said the CEOM members arrived in Guyana during the course of this week. Since their arrival, meetings have been held with the Chairman and CEO of GECOM, the Guyana Integrity Commission, the Commissioner of Police, the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) and the Women and Gender Equality Commission, the media, and various civil society groups. Having already met with President Ali and representatives of the PPP/C as well as APNU, the mission will be engaging the other political parties ahead of Monday’s polls including We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Alliance for Change (AFC), Assembly of Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) and Forward Guyana Movement (FGM). The team will also engage with additional civil society institutions and stakeholders, including local and international observers. These meetings are expected to provide the CEOM with a general idea of the atmosphere and level of preparedness for the elections. The CEOM will continue to observe the pre-elections period, elections day and post-election activities. The role of the CEOM Observers on election day is to observe the electoral process, including preparations for the start of the poll, the casting of votes, the closure of the polling stations, the counting of the ballots, the preparation of the statement of polls and the tabulation of results. Qualitative and quantitative information regarding the voting process and the results will be collected to facilitate the preparation of an Independent Final Report on the General and Regional Elections to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Following the conclusion of the Election Day activities on September 1, and prior to the Mission’s departure on September 3, a Preliminary Statement will be issued, outlining the Mission’s initial assessment of the electoral process. The Mission will, thereafter, prepare a detailed Independent Final Report on the elections for submission to the CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr Carla Barnett.President Dr Irfaan Ali, who is also Presidential Candidate for the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), has met with representatives of several Elections Observation Missions (EOM) that are in Guyana to monitor the upcoming General and Regional Elections on Monday, September 1, 2025.
Among the groups he met with was the Organisation of American States (OAS) Electoral Observation Mission. Former Jamaican Prime Minister (PM), Bruce Golding, is leading the 27-member OAS mission in Guyana.
Golding, along with core members of the team including Deputy Chief of Mission Melene Glynn, Specialists Coordinator Clarissa Ribeiro, and Press Officer Diego Paez attended the recent engagement with President Ali at State House in Georgetown.
During the engagement, President Ali briefed the team on electoral legislative amendments to prevent the reoccurrence of the attempted rigging that occurred in 2020. He explained that the changes were also based on recommendations from previous electoral observer mission reports. The Head of State further shared that the Government is committed to the constitutional reform process to promote democracy. During the recent engagement, President Ali was joined by key members of his Cabinet including Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall; Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira; and Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, who is also the PPP/C’s Executive Secretary. Together, they underscored the Government’s commitment to strengthening democratic institutions and highlighted the critical role of the OAS in safeguarding transparency and integrity throughout Guyana’s electoral process.
At the March 2, 2020 elections in Guyana, Golding that also headed the OAS mission here and had said in his preliminary report that he “has never seen a more transparent effort to alter the results of an election.” This was after the senior officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) attempted to inflate voting figures from Region Four in favour of the then A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition regime. Golding had said in his statement that, “It takes an extraordinarily courageous mind to present fictitious numbers when such a sturdy paper trail exists.”
The OAS EOM comprises 27 experts and observers from 18 countries. The Mission will focus its work on electoral organisation and registries, electoral technology, political-electoral financing, electoral justice and the political participation of women. This will allow the team to analyse the process in a structured and technically rigorous manner. Meanwhile, the President also met with the United States (US)-based Carter Center Observation Mission that is here for Monday’s General and Regional Elections. During the engagement at State House, the team was led by its Leader of Mission Jason Carter. Additionally, President Ali and his Cabinet Ministers also met with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Electoral Observer Mission (CEOM) that is currently in Guyana to observe Monday’s election. Chief of Mission Josephine Tamai from Belize, led the CARICOM team to meet the Government officials on Friday at State House.
The CARICOM Mission also met with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) party officials on Friday. CARICOM has mounted a 10-member Election Observation Mission to observe the electoral processes for the General and Regional Elections, from August 26 to September 3, 2025. The Mission comprises Electoral Officials from eight CARICOM Member States. In addition to Tamai, who is the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of the Elections and Boundaries Department of Belize, the other members of the CEOM are Deputy Chief of Mission, Ian Hughes, who is a Supervisor of Elections in Antigua and Barbuda; Harrison L Thompson, a Parliamentary Commissioner in The Bahamas; Fatima Gordon, a Supervisor of Registering Officers, Elections and Boundaries Department also from Belize; Ambassador Felix Gregoire, Chairman of the Public Service Commission in Dominica; Michael Paul Millette, an Information Systems Administrator at the Grenada Parliamentary Elections Office; Herman St Helen, the CEO in Saint Lucia; Reita Joemratie and Sonja Galimo, Members of the Independent Electoral Council in Suriname; and Lena Champa Sahadeo, Deputy Chief Elections Officer of Trinidad and Tobago. The CEOM will be supported by eight staff members from the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown.
In a statement on Friday, CARICOM said the CEOM members arrived in Guyana during the course of this week. Since their arrival, meetings have been held with the Chairman and CEO of GECOM, the Guyana Integrity Commission, the Commissioner of Police, the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) and the Women and Gender Equality Commission, the media, and various civil society groups. Having already met with President Ali and representatives of the PPP/C as well as APNU, the mission will be engaging the other political parties ahead of Monday’s polls including We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Alliance for Change (AFC), Assembly of Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) and Forward Guyana Movement (FGM). The team will also engage with additional civil society institutions and stakeholders, including local and international observers. These meetings are expected to provide the CEOM with a general idea of the atmosphere and level of preparedness for the elections. The CEOM will continue to observe the pre-elections period, elections day and post-election activities. The role of the CEOM Observers on election day is to observe the electoral process, including preparations for the start of the poll, the casting of votes, the closure of the polling stations, the counting of the ballots, the preparation of the statement of polls and the tabulation of results. Qualitative and quantitative information regarding the voting process and the results will be collected to facilitate the preparation of an Independent Final Report on the General and Regional Elections to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Following the conclusion of the Election Day activities on September 1, and prior to the Mission’s departure on September 3, a Preliminary Statement will be issued, outlining the Mission’s initial assessment of the electoral process. The Mission will, thereafter, prepare a detailed Independent Final Report on the elections for submission to the CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr Carla Barnett.
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