Home Letters Why the 2025 Voters’ List Is Credible: An evidence-based analysis on voter...
Dear Editor,
Guyana’s 2025 voters’ list, at 757,690, reflects lawful inclusion, demographic growth, and continuous registration – not bloat – confirmed by independent observers such as the Carter Center, underscoring the credibility of the electoral process ahead of the September 1, 2025, elections.
• 2025 mirrors 2020’s growth pattern: +16% (2015–2020) vs +15% (2020–2025) – representing a one-percentage-point decline over the previous cycle, not an outlier.
• Once registered, citizens cannot be removed from the OLE except by proof of death via a verified death certificate (CJ ruling ahead of 2020). Thus, overseas-based Guyanese who migrated after registering remain lawfully on the list.
• Continuous registration since 2005; multiple GECOM cycles since 2006 kept the roll current. 
• Demographic pipeline: ≈256,000 from the 2012 Census cohorts matured into eligibility across 2015→2020 (160,000) and 2025 (≈96,000).
• Net return migration + new opportunities (oil & gas, concessions) expand the eligible pool. Bottom line: The 757k (2025) voters’ list reflects lawful inclusion, demographic growth, and ongoing maintenance – not “bloat”.
The debate surrounding the integrity of Guyana’s voters’ list is neither new nor fleeting. Over the years, questions have frequently arisen about whether the list is “bloated”, particularly during and after contentious election cycles. One of the most prominent interventions came from businessman Mr Stanley Ming, who advanced the argument – backed by what he described as mathematical analysis – that the Official List of Electors (OLE) could not credibly contain over 500,000 registered voters. His reasoning implied that tens of thousands of ballots cast should be considered invalid, thereby challenging the legitimacy of the electoral process.
That debate resurfaced most sharply during the national elections’ saga of 2020, where concerns about the size of the voters’ list became central to the political discourse. At the time, opposition figures argued that the Government’s electoral mandate rested on a “bloated list”. These claims were even conveyed to senior U.S. officials during their engagements with Guyanese stakeholders, where reference was made to the national recount which showed 460,352 ballots cast against 661,378 eligible voters.
Fast-forward to today, the issue has once again come into sharp focus as Guyana prepares for General and Regional Elections due on September 1, 2025.The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has published the current electors’ list, showing an increase from 661,378 voters in 2020 to 757,690 in 2025. Notably, the Carter Centre’s pre-election observer report, released on August 19, 2025, found no evidence of an inflated voters’ list, directly challenging the recurring narrative of “bloating”. This assessment underscores the need to examine the matter through a longer historical lens rather than episodic political claims.
Against this backdrop, it is timely to revisit the issue, not as a matter of partisan contestation, but through a systematic analysis of voter registration trends over the last three decades. From 1992 through to 2025, the evolution of the voters’ list reflects demographic shifts, institutional reforms, and administrative practices. A careful trend analysis allows us to move beyond speculative arguments and instead ground the discussion in data and historical context.
Henceforth, this report provides a historical analysis of voter registration trends in Guyana from 1992 to 2025. The data illustrates the overall upward trajectory of the voters’ list, with notable declines in 2001 and 2011. These declines were tied to major electoral reforms such as the introduction of photo ID cards in 2001 and biometric house-to-house registration in 2008.The chart and table below contextualise these changes against continuous registration periods and population growth.
The trend: steady growth. The long run series (1992–2025) shows normal ebbs and flows, with two very similar growth intervals anchoring the recent period: 2020 vs 2015 at +15.9% and 2025 vs 2020 at +14.6%. That’s essentially the same growth band repeated, not an anomaly. And, as confirmed by recent diaspora studies and election observer analysis, Guyana’s exceptionally high emigration rate implies many eligible citizens reside overseas yet remain lawfully on the register – so a larger total, including the 2025 figure (≈757,000), is credible and justifiable. Furthermore, as one would recall, as well, that following the announcement of the national cash grant in 2024, many Guyanese abroad returned home to register for the same, which would have contributed to the higher level of registered voters.
Yours sincerely,
Joel Bhagwandin
