GECOM clears hurdles for parties to oversee polls

Last Updated on Sunday, 31 August 2025, 11:40 by Writer

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Saturday said it agreed to accept the late notification or submission of several categories of persons that are key to the political parties monitoring Monday’s general and regional elections.

“As a consequence, written appeals were submitted by the parties to the Commission for consideration. In this regard, a special sitting of a statutory meeting was convened, and the requests were approved in the interest of fairness and transparency, and to ensure the integrity of the process,” the electoral management authority said in a statement.

The decision to do so for the assistant agents, polling agents and candidates to the poll and to the count from the Alliance for Change (AFC), Assembly of Liberty and Prosperity (ALP), Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) and The We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) political parties was made on Saturday.

GECOM said those parties had missed the statutory timeline for the submission in accordance with Section 24 (2) of the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), which requires that such notification be given to the respective returning officers no later than seven days before election day. 

As a result of the Commission’s decision, Chief Election Officer Vishnu Persaud, according to GECOM, immediately notified all the concerned parties’ representatives, informing them of the development and urging them to pursue accreditation of their agents and candidates with respective returning officers as soon as possible, given the timeframe that is available for this to be done.

WIN had threatened to reject the results of the September 1 general and regional elections if its polling agents could not oversee voting.