No-show Opposition Commissioners sabotage GECOM’s meeting to declare Dr Irfaan Ali President

…recount shows PPP’s winning votes increased in Regions 4 & 5
…APNU, WIN agents abandon Day 2 of opposition requested recount

The three Opposition Commissioners on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) – Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin, and Desmond Trotman – were a no-show on Friday night at a 23:00h meeting called by the Chairman, (Ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh, to certify the results of the September 1 General and Regional Elections.

The meeting was called following the conclusion of two approved recount requests for the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) in Sub-District Four of Region Four and partial recount in Region Five.
However, notwithstanding the APNU requesting the recount elections, agents from the party were a no-show as the recount got into day-two on Friday. The We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, which had also been vociferous about recount requests also did not have any agents present at the second day of the recount.
on Friday evening, due to the absence of the Opposition Commissioners, a quorum could not be reached for the GECOM meeting and as such it was adjourned.
A quorum requires at least two commissioners from the government and two from the opposition to be present, and since this requirement was not met, another meeting will be called today.
However, the law provides that at this second meeting, a quorum is met by the presence of any four Commissioners, including the Chairman. This was explained by Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, as he spoke to reporters on Friday night after the adjournment of the meeting.
Gunraj described the Commissioners’ absence as a tactic to delay the declaration of the results, much like the recounts requested by the APNU.
“During the conduct of the elections, the final step in the electoral process as we all know, and as we are all expecting, is the declaration of the results. A meeting was duly summoned by the chairman as she is authorised to do for the purposes of making that declaration… we have turned up this evening and there has been a no-show by the three [Opposition] Commissioners,” Gunraj said.
“The framers of the constitution must have contemplated issues such as this, and the importance, which is attached to a declaration. It caters for… the presence of any four commissioners will be a quorate. Any four commissioners, which includes the Chairman. As long as the meeting is correct then any business that is contemplated or can be conducted at a meeting of the commission will obviously be conducted,” he added.
Once the declaration is made, a notification will be sent to the Chancellor of the Judiciary, who is authorised to administer the “Oath of A President”. Justice Roxane George is currently the acting Chancellor.
PPP’s winning votes increased
Following the conclusion of the tabulation of the recount, the new declarations for Region Four and Region Five has reaffirmed a win for the People’s Progressive Party /Civic (PPP/C), giving a second term to President Dr. Irfaan Ali.
The recount saw the APNU losing votes, and the PPP/C gaining votes. In Region Four, the PPP/C picked up two votes, moving from 87,536 to 87,538. However, after gaining 46,956 votes in the original count, APNU dropped to 46,949 in the recount. APNU’s opposition partner, the Alliance for Change (AFC) also dropped by six votes, moving from 1765 to 1761. Conversely, the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) ended up picking up six votes – moving from 2431 to 2437.
In Region Five, in the original count, APNU had 6,480 votes, but the recount showed that they had received 6,477 votes; a decline of three.
Region Four has historically been a district won by the APNU coalition’s largest partner the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR). However, in the 2025 declaration for the District, the APNU declined by almost 70,000 votes when compared to the 116,941 votes that the party received in the General Elections in 2020, when it coalesced with the AFC.
APNU’s lost votes were picked up by the newcomer WIN party headed by US-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohammed. In Region 4, WIN received 41,607 in the general elections and 41,930 in the regional. WIN’s votes remained constant after the recount.
The AFC on the other hand struggled to garner impactful results in Region Four, or in any district across the country. Another political newcomer, the FGM headed by former PNCR Executive, Amanza Walton-Desir, also appeared to have walked away with some of APNU’s votes. Countrywide FGM gathered over 4100 votes, while the AFC garnered approximately 3600.
The APNU, and its Presidential Candidate, Aubrey Norton, have been left reeling and have been utterly flabbergasted by the extent of the party’s 2025 decline.
Norton has deemed the situation “implausible”. The sting has been all the harder for the party to deal with, given that the party has also lost its most loyal stronghold of Region 10, where WIN led the district with 10,458 in the General Elections. APNU trailed behind with just 5,334, while the PPPC took 4,260 votes. The AFC landed with a negligible 210, while in their first showing, FGM walked away with 662 votes.
In a last-ditch effort, Norton on Friday wrote to the GECOM Chairman, (Ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh, calling for a “forensic audit of the elections”, while simultaneously demanding that the entire 2025 elections be aborted.
The Chairman has since responded to Norton informing him that the redress which he seeks must be done through an Elections Petition, which must be filed with the High Court after GECOM has declared the results.