Gov’t mulls residency without right to vote for migrant workers

Last Updated on Thursday, 6 November 2025, 20:51 by Writer

The Guyana government on Thursday flagged the option of granting migrant workers residency but not affording them the right to vote in elections, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.

“We made it clear that we would have to think about people, who come here and maybe they can have residency but not voting rights,” he told a news conference. He said similar provisions exist in other countries.

Mr Jagdeo said that debate about the rights Guyana would be prepared to allow migrants to have could form part of the constitutional reform process. Currently, Guyana’s constitution permits citizens of sister Commonwealth countries the right to vote if they are living here for one year or more.

The Vice President said the key would be to preserve Guyana for Guyanese without changing the nature of the society while at the same time facilitating migrants to cope with labour shortages.

Meanwhile, he said the soon-to-be-compulsory electronic identification (e-ID) cards for both migrants and Guyanese would be integrated with the Smart Country video surveillance facial recognition system that would include another 4,000 facial recognition cameras. “Once we put in the biometrics there, they can identify anyone, anywhere in the country at any time so that we can keep our country safe,” he said.