Forward Guyana seeks High Court order for elections delay until contesting parties are on ballots

Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 August 2025, 18:42 by Writer

Less than two weeks before Guyanese are scheduled to vote in general and regional elections, the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), led by Amanza Walton-Desir, on Wednesday moved to the High Court to challenge its exclusion from the ballots for the general election in regions that it is not contesting for council seats.

In court papers seen by Demerara Waves Online News, FGM candidate Krystal Hadassah, is seeking an order restraining the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from proceeding with the conduct of the September 1 General and Regional Elections unless and until that political party’s list of candidates is duly included on the ballots in all 10 electoral regions, in keeping with Guyana’s Constitution and the Representation of the People Act.

Through her lawyer Dr Vivian Williams, another order being sought mandates that GECOM includes all political parties contesting the national elections on the ballot papers in all geographic regions.

The FGM is also seeking declarations that GECOM’s practice in excluding political parties contesting the national elections from appearing on the ballot in certain geographic regions violates the Applicant’s rights, as well as the rights of voters in those regions, to vote and to equal suffrage under Article 59 of the Constitution, is discriminatory in itself and/or in its effect, constituting differential treatment of voters based on “place of origin,” and race, contrary to Article 149 of the Constitution, and GECOM’s system of omitting political parties from ballots in regions where they are not fielding candidates for regional seats in the National Assembly distorts proportional representation, undermines the principle of representative democracy, and is unconstitutional.

Other declarations being sought are that the GECOM’s exclusion of the FGM list of candidates from the ballots for the national elections in Regions 7, 8, and 9 constitutes a denial of the first-named Applicant’s constitutional right, as a candidate, to ballot access and to contest in free and fair elections, GECOM’s exclusion of political parties contesting the national elections from ballots in certain geographic regions, violates Article 13 of the Constitution by undermining inclusionary democracy, restricting voter choice, and limiting the ability of smaller parties to participate effectively in the political process, and that any elections held without the inclusion, on the ballots in all ten regions, of all political parties that have satisfied the legal requirements to contest the national elections are null, void, and of no legal effect.

FGM is made up of Forward Guyana (FG), The People’s Movement (TPM), and the Vigilant Political Action Committee (V-PAC).