…political parties must submit symbols for approval by June 22
With September 1, 2025 set as the date for the holding of General and Regional Elections this year, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has announced that Nomination Day would be on July 14, 2025.
Consequently, Political Parties desirous of contesting the upcoming elections will be required to submit their respective Lists of Candidates on Nomination Day, in keeping with statutory provisions.
The law prescribed that the submissions of the lists of candidates and nominators will have to be done strictly on Nominations Day and within the timeframe set – no time earlier or later.
In a statement on Friday, GECOM noted that the respective statutory forms for the submission of Lists of Candidates are accessible on its website at www.gecom.org.gy.
Additionally, political parties will be required to submit applications for the allocation of symbols to be approval by the Elections Commission by June 22, 2025.
These announcements come on the heels of the seven-member Elections Commission approving the workplan for the holding of the 2025 General and Regional Elections.
That workplan, prepared by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud, was given the greenlight during a statutory meeting held on Thursday. With this approval, the GECOM Secretariat is now authorised to proceed with the implementation of the tasks delineated in the workplan to ensure that the elections are conducted in a free, fair, and transparent manner.
Government-nominated GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, previously explained to this newspaper that the workplan entails a list of tasks; the period allotted for the execution of those tasks, and the dates for completion prior to the holding of elections, as well as for activities even after the elections, including as it relates to results.
“The work plan is important because that is basically the Commission’s guidance to the Secretariat to execute. So, the fact that we have that approved, the Secretariat is free to follow it to facilitate the holding of elections,” Gunraj had explained on Thursday evening.
This approval, however, did not come without challenges.
The date for elections was announced by President Dr Irfaan Ali after consulting with the GECOM Chair, (Ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh. However, the three Opposition-aligned Commissioners at GECOM had claimed during a press conference on Tuesday morning that the Commission was not ready to hold elections and that they were looking at a workplan with a date towards the end of September. The Commissioners had even walked out of a statutory meeting on Tuesday last.
However, GECOM subsequently clarified, via a statement, that the workplan mentioned by the Opposition Commissioners was merely a schedule of activities to give an idea of the timeframe for holding the elections. In fact, the elections body noted that the Secretariat even consider a date as earlier at August 25.
Nevertheless, at another meeting was held by the Elections Commission on Thursday, saw the participation of the Opposition Commissioners during which the workplan for September 1 was approved.
Continuous registration
Meanwhile, the Elections Commission on Friday also indicated that since it has been conducting continuous registration throughout the year and since January 2023, a short Claims and Objections exercise will be held prior to polling day.
This exercise will run from June 16 to 20, 2025, and is in keeping with the legal requirement to produce an Official Lists of Electors (OLE) to be used for the conduct of the elections, GECOM said.
Eligible persons who will be 18 years and older by June 30, 2025 and have not been registered, can apply for registration during this period to be included in the OLE in order to be eligible to vote in September 1 elections.
Persons who are already registered can apply for (i) correction of incorrect particulars on their National Identification Cards, (ii) name change if they have changed their name(s) since they were registered, and (iii) transfers if they have changed their addresses since they were registered.
However, it is of crucial importance to note that any elector who have changed their residential address from one electoral division/district, that is, Region, to another, will have to go the polling station associated with their previous address in order to vote at the elections.
