At least 21 political parties will be submitting their lists of candidates and nominators to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) today as Nomination Day gets underway, ahead of the September 1, 2025 General and Regional Elections. Initially, 22 parties had submitted symbols for approval by GECOM, signalling their interest to contest the upcoming polls. However, Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) Aneal Giddings, told reporters last week that 21 symbols were approved after one of the parties withdrew from the race.
Although GECOM has approved the symbols of 21 political parties, several of the smaller parties have since formed alliances with either other small political parties or with much larger ones. These changes will be reflected when GECOM publishes the final symbol list on July 23.
The Umana Yana is all set for today’s Nomination Day where political parties will submit their lists of candidates and nominators to GECOM
Today, political parties and independent candidates desirous of contesting the September 1 elections will submit their respective lists of Candidates to the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud, from 10:00h to 14:00h at the Umana Yana in Kingston, Georgetown. These include a Geographical Constituency List, a National Top-Up List and a Regional Democratic Council List.
On Saturday, GECOM said preparations were being finalised for the smooth hosting of Nomination Day. The Election Commission has since issued letters to the political parties informing them of their respective placement as to when they would be allowed to enter the Umana Yana to make their submissions.
“GECOM will provide a structured environment conducive to the peaceful and respectful participation of all contesting political entities. GECOM requests respect for the democratic process and contribution to a peaceful and dignified atmosphere throughout the day,” GECOM also advised in the Saturday statement.
Guyana Times was made to understand that the People’s National Congress (PNC)-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) was given the first spot, while the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is second, the Alliance for Change (AFC) in third spot and the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) given fourth place. But several of the small parties have objected to the order of placement.
Nevertheless, GECOM noted in a statement that, the process will be conducted with strict adherence to electoral procedures, considering order of arrival, document verification, and stakeholder coordination. Each party is required to submit their Lists of Candidates for the election of a President, members of the National Assembly and members of the Regional Democratic Councils to the Chief Elections Officer. Each parties’ National Top-Up List should comprise of 300-330 nominators, 42 candidates (persons to be elected to sit in the National Assembly) who all need a signed statutory declaration form in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths or Justice of Peace, and include the name of the Presidential Candidate.
The Statutory Declaration form is what candidates sign to indicate that they are Guyanese and conform to other requirements set out in the law such as that they are not a citizen of any other country.
GECOM has already informed political parties that persons with dual citizenship are not qualified to be elected as Members of the National Assembly.
It explained that if a list contains persons who are dual citizens but that list has a surplus of names of persons who are not dual citizens and who are qualified to be elected as members of the National Assembly, then the list will not automatically become defective with the removal of the dual citizenship name.
However, the list will become defective if the dual citizenship name is removed and the remaining names do not meet the required numbers of candidates.
The party of the defective list would be informed and would have to make the changes. Meanwhile, the Geographical Constituency (Administrative Regions) List must include 150-175 nominators from each constituency.
For those contesting the Regional Elections, the Regional Democratic Council List must comprise of 150-175 nominators for each constituency – all residing in the said region, and 12 to 36 candidates also from within the region. They too are required to sign a statutory form.
Candidates and Nominators can only appear on one party’s list including on both the National Top-up and Geographical Constituency Lists, but can only appear on one of that party’s geographical lists.
With Guyana’s National Assembly comprised of 65 elected members, 25 of these are elected from the 10 Geographical Constituencies and the remaining 40 from the National Top-Up list. Parties also have to ensure that one-third of the candidates nominated are female.
A breakdown of the 10 Geographical Constituencies shows that Regions One, Two, Five, Seven and 10, are allocated two seats each; Regions Three and Six get three seats each; Region Four is allocated seven seats; and Regions Eight and Nine get one seat each. Political parties can contest a minimum of six of the 10 Geographical Constituencies, but when combined those constituencies must amount to a total of 13 seats. These requirements, as well as others will be examined by the CEO and those parties whose lists do not meet all the requirements will be deemed defective. However, the CEO will inform of the defective list(s) and the respective parties will have one day to make corrections and resubmit the lists.
GECOM has a software that it has been using since 2006, which has been finetuned over the years, to run the lists from each political parties to identify defects such as repetition of names where they ought not to be.
For those lists with defects, the respective party will be informed by GECOM on July 15 and they will have until July 17 to make the corrections. GECOM will give final approval or disapproval of the lists on July 18. Thereafter, provisions are made for any party to take legal action to contest GECOM’s decision.
During this time also, parties can make withdrawals or notification of death of candidates to GECOM by July 15; submit withdrawals of lists by July 17; and submit notification of Joinder of Lists by July 21.
GECOM will then be publishing the final and approved lists, titles and symbols on July 23 after a rigorous vetting process to ensure that all the submissions are in compliance with the various legal practices and procedures.
