APNU, WIN, FMG weigh in on composition of elections commission

Last Updated on Saturday, 13 September 2025, 8:19 by Writer

Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR)-dominated A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton on Friday expressed reluctance to persuade any of the existing opposition-nominated election commissioners to resign now that We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) has replaced his party as the main parliamentary opposition.

“I don’t know that I want to do that…because I don’t think it is the best thing for me to do at this stage,” he said when asked by Demerara Waves Online News at a virtual news conference. Mr Norton did not elaborate.

APNU won 12 seats, WIN, 16, Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), 1 and the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC), 36.

Election commissioners Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin are historically linked to the PNCR/APNU and Desmond Trotman to APNU which again includes the Working People’s Alliance. The PPPC-nominated election commissioners are Sase Gunraj, Manoj Narayan and Clement Rohee.

Apart from resigning, Guyana’s Constitution provides for the removal of members of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) only for their inability to discharge their functions due to physical or mental illness or misbehaviour. Commissioners can also be replaced due to death.

However, WIN executive member Tabita Sarabo-Halley told Demerara Waves Online News separately that there should be discussions to ensure that GECOM reflects the new make-up of the parliamentary opposition. Ms Sarabo-Halley said it would be important for WIN to have “some amount of representation” to ensure that its issues are ventilated and addressed” for local government elections and the 2030 general and regional elections. “We believe that even this election period that a lot of our issues were not really raised and we don’t know whether they were raised at the level of the Commission because we do not have anybody at that space and I believe that, as the major party in opposition right now, that we should have a say in what is happening at the level of GECOM and our only way of doing that is having a Commissioner on the Commission,” Ms Sarabo-Halley said.

FGM leader Amanza Walton-Desir opted for a cautious approach, saying that there must be talks to ensure that GECOM’s composition reflects “the political reality”. She said the constitutional impediments could be removed if sitting election commissioners resign. “We are also aware that there is also a discretion on the part of sitting commissioners to choose to demit et cetera, so it is certainly something that has to be monitored and conversations had because GECOM has to reflect the political reality of the day,” she said.

Asked whether she would be exerting political pressure on them to resign if they refuse to do so, the FGM leader acknowledged that Messrs Alexander, Corbin and Trotman have chalked up “years of experience and years of expertise and that cannot be discounted.” She said her party would like to hear from them about how they intend to consult with the new opposition make-up. “These are matters that you would have to hear from them about before you can make final determinations and statements,” she said.