APNU questions digital ID card registration without operationalised laws

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 November 2025, 0:47 by Writer

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Monday expressed “deep concern” that many government workers were being registered for the digital identity card although the relevant laws to protect such vital personal information have not yet been activated.

“In plain terms, the Government is collecting and storing biometric identity data for thousands of public servants without the full force of the law, without the safeguards Parliament intended, and without the oversight mechanisms necessary to prevent abuse,” APNU shadow home affairs minister Sherod Duncan said in a statement.

Reacting to Prime Minister Mark Phillips saying that a number of arrangements would be put in place shortly before he issues the commencement orders for the 2023 Digital Identity Card Act and the 2023 Data Protection Act and that the registration currently underway is legal, Mr Duncan said a number of urgent questions and motions would be filed in the National Assembly to “protect citizens”.

He said those parliamentary moves would require the government to explain the legal authority under which the digital ID rollout is occurring, and operationalise the Digital Identity Card Act and the Data Protection Act before more persons are registered.

APNU also wants the government to table the US$34 million Veridos contract and a full audit of its deliverables and clarify how digital ID data will interact with employment systems, banking systems, migration databases, and the expanding national surveillance network.

While welcoming every effort at modernisation and digital transformation, APNU feared that the government was up to mischief by not issuing the commencement orders for those two laws but still registering persons. “When a government refuses to activate the very legal firewalls designed to protect citizens from misuse of their most sensitive personal data, that becomes a major red flag that Guyanese cannot afford to ignore,” APNU said.

The APNU’s call was issued just days after the European Union Election Observer Mission (EUEOM), in its final report, slammed the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) for allegedly using data collected for the 2024-2025 cash grant distribution to call electors in the run-up to the September 1 general and regional elections.

President Irfaan Ali has not denied this outrightly but said people from other parties were also calling electors.

This issue does not stand alone. In recent weeks, APNU has already raised alarms about the government’s misuse of citizen data, its refusal to operationalize the Data Protection Act, its mishandling of election-related communications in parliamentary questions already tabled on the integrity of the digital identity ecosystem. Today’s development expands and intensifies those concerns.

APNU reminded that senior members of the government, including the Vice President, have publicly announced that the digital ID will soon be mandatory for accessing government services, securing employment, opening and maintaining bank accounts, remitting money, and potentially for migrant registration and regularisation.

That 12-seat opposition party said Guyana is witnessing the rapid assembly of what experts describe as a “single spine of traceable identity,” linking employment records, banking information, cash-grant delivery, healthcare data, migration status, telecommunications metadata, and even inputs from the expanding national camera network.

The APNU said the unified identity infrastructure was being built without the legal architecture required to safeguard rights, prevent profiling, or ensure accountability. “In this environment, where the Digital ID framework remains unprotected by law, the Data Protection Act is inactive, the Census results are concealed, and the executive branch is rapidly consolidating biometric, financial, and migratory data, Guyana must proceed with extreme caution,” Mr Duncan added.

While Guyanese want modern services, he said they did not want a system that allows any Government to track, profile, or pressure citizens without lawful restraint. “A Digital ID can be a tool for progress. But without the law in effect, it becomes a tool of control,” he added.