UNDP gives GECOM high marks for 2025 elections conduct

Last Updated on Sunday, 23 November 2025, 16:08 by Writer

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has scored Guyana’s Electoral Management Body (EMB) very high for the manner in which it conducted the September 1 general and regional elections.

“With technical assistance from UNDP Guyana, funded by the Government of the United Kingdom (UK), the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) delivered one of the most transparent, credible, and professionally managed elections in the country’s modern history,” the UNDP said in a statement.

Dating back to 1992 when the country held its first free and fair elections in almost 30 years, Guyana’s general election had always been marred by sometimes violent political unrest or intense controversy over the conduct and outcome of the elections.

The UNDP statement on this year’s elections quoted the Team Lead of the UNDP Electoral Technical Support to GECOM as saying that his strategic advice was highly appreciated and implemented to unlock bottlenecks that eventually led to the acceptance of the results. “The tabulation process, despite recount challenges, was conducted in an organised manner with results being given within days of polls closing and all political parties accepting the results,” that Team Lead said, adding that the conduct of the election, despite its challenges, was attributed in large part to GECOM’s professionalism and direction.

In clear reference to the amendment of the relevant election laws that allowed for the posting of statements of poll on GECOM’s website and the tabulation of results from those statements only, the UNDP also said that in 2022, GECOM underwent significant legal reforms which enabled technology to play a groundbreaking role in advancing transparency throughout the electoral process.

The UNDP said GECOM’s in-house statement of poll upload system was strengthened with cybersecurity safeguards, ensuring results were uploaded seamlessly even during temporary public website outages. At the same time, an upgraded results tabulation application was deployed across 20 counting centres and praised by observers for its clarity and user-friendliness, GECOM added. “In the digital age, information technology is no longer just a tool—it is the backbone of credible, inclusive, and resilient elections,” the Information Technology Specialist, UNDP Electoral Technical Support to GECOM, stated.

The 2020 general and regional elections had been marred by the tabulation of results that led to declarations in favour of the then incumbent A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC). However, a five-month long national vote recount verified that the votes cast were the same as those on statements of poll that political parties, except APNU+AFC, had in their possession and showed the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) as the winner.

Meanwhile, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM), in its final report, also praised GECOM for managing operations “effectively”, but at the same time said the seven-member commission whose six members are equally split between government and opposition parties was unhelpful to public confidence. “Such appointment model risks inefficient decision making and paralysis, and thus diminished stakeholder trust. As such, existing legal bars to political parties’ active management in the electoral process could be further strengthened to insulate GECOM from partisan conduct,” the EUEOM said.

The EUEOM’s report also reflected opposition concerns about potential voter manipulation due to the fact that the voters list of 757,690 registrants includes the names of those living abroad and Commonwealth citizens.

The EUEOM’s report also reported concerns about campaign financing, the PPPC’s abuse of incumbency, alleged use of cash grant registration data to call voters, abuse of state media.