RoPA amendments to safeguard vote tabulation; block election manipulation

… to shut out electoral miscreants, ensure prompt election results

The Government on Monday led debates on the amendments to the Representation of the People’s Act (ROPA), which according to Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall will close the door on any attempts by electoral miscreants to cause trouble during future General and Regional elections.
The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2025 is being amended so that either the supernumerary returning officer or their deputy can oversee tabulation of votes in the electoral sub-districts. According to AG and Senior Counsel Anil Nandlall, the bill is aimed at preventing a reoccurrence of the Region Four tabulation drama at Ashmins building that occurred after the 2020 General and Regional elections.

“For the listening public, it simply means that that exercise we all famously saw beginning on March 3rd at Ashmins Building, that grand exercise we all saw, will now take place in Region Four at four different centres. That obviously is being done to avoid the fraudulent fiasco that erupted at Ashmins Building. And to avoid the electoral miscreants from unfolding their plans that every election they try to unfold.”
“And they are muttering here, because they are uncomfortable. I’ve always said, Mr Speaker, that bandits will always have a problem when you grill your house. It makes their job a little more tedious and difficult. So, you will excuse the utterances you are hearing emanating from the other side,” Nandlall said.
Nandlall noted that when they amended the ROPA Act in 2022, they omitted to spell out that the supernumerary returning officer can have a deputy. However, he pointed out that the returning officer already has a deputy in the law. For the avoidance of doubt and attempts to exploit this loophole, Nandlall noted that it was necessary to provide for a deputy supernumerary returning officer.
“When one draws the analogy between the supernumerary returning officer and the returning officer, as the supernumerary returning officer will be a miniaturised version of the returning officer, you realise the returning officer has a deputy in ROPA. But in the amendments which we did, we did not include a deputy for the supernumerary returning officer. And that is all that this bill is intended to correct.”
“I thought commonsense and logic would have allowed for an elastic interpretation that would accommodate the omission. But we are dealing here with electoral miscreants. And you can’t leave anything to chance here. And you hear them? They are very annoyed that we are blocking this last hole, because this may have been an avenue they were looking at, licking their lips. Here’s an opportunity for the cat top pounce on the milk. But we just took the milk and lock it in a safe. So, the cat has to lick its lip dry.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Sonia Parag who noted that no longer should the electorate wait five months for elections results. Also speaking out in support of the bill, was Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha.

Obfuscate
The Minister made it clear that the amendment is intended to close the door on political parties using their agents to obfuscate the election results. He also took aim at the opposition ahead of the 2025 election, contending that the opposition political parties were not ready for the upcoming polls.
“It’s the first time in the history of the whole world; the opposition is not prepared for an election. We would have cut it with our hands if we were in opposition. Because we are always prepared for any election in this country.”
“Never again must the APNU/AFC use their puppets to manipulate the election processes, especially tabulation of election results in this country. That is why we brought these amendments,” Mustapha said.
However, Opposition speakers – including Member of Parliament (MP) and Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde – argued that the Government should prioritise other pieces of election reform legislation. He cited recommendations from international observers, including the Organisation of American States (OAS), calling for a review of the structure of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and concerns over the commission’s polarisation.
The bill was eventually passed with one amendment: the removal of Clause Three, which had initially proposed changes to Section 33(c) of ROPA. Other MPs, including Amanza Walton-Desir and Ganesh Mahipaul, also contributed to the debate.
These latest ROPA amendments seek to fix illegalities that occurred during the tabulation of results from Region Four in March 2020. During that process, Returning Officer for Region Four Clairmont Mingo, one of nine persons charged for electoral fraud, stands accused of seeking to alter the electoral results from his region, including excluding hundreds of thousands of votes from PPP/C strongholds, to hand victory to APNU/AFC.