Encourage civil society participation, resume presidential debates to sustain issue-based campaigning

Last Updated on Monday, 22 December 2025, 22:48 by Writer

The Commonwealth Group that observed this year’s general and regional elections is recommending the reintroduction of presidential debates as a means of fostering and promoting campaigns based on issues, although the “tone” has shifted largely away from the traditional race-based politics.

The observers said to strengthen electoral integrity and fairness, Guyana should consider institutionalising issue-based campaigning, ensuring media independence and transparency, and build digital resilience through monitoring, regulation, and civic education.

“Encourage the revival of presidential debates that are nationally televised and regionally broadcast to encourage issue-based campaigns,” states the Commonwealth Observer Group’s report dated September 1 and published on Monday, December 22.

The last presidential debate was held in 1992 between then incumbent President Desmond Hoyte of the People’s National Congress (PNC) and his main rival Dr Cheddi Jagan of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) who won that year’s elections.

Subsequent efforts to have similar debates between the two main political parties have been unsuccessful.

The Commonwealth Observer Group further said as a part of a post-election review, consideration be given to the creation and implementation of a code of conduct for relevant electoral stakeholders that integrates issue-based campaigning.

Concerning campaign strategy, the observers said the 2025 general and regional elections presented a platform for political parties and candidates to contest the elections in a rapidly evolving political and economic landscape in Guyana.

“There was a blend of traditional mobilisation techniques and policy-driven messaging aimed at addressing Guyana’s economic and social challenges, which set a new tone for electoral competition beyond historic ethnic divides,” the report states.

The Commonwealth observer mission said the main campaign issues revolved around the transparent use of revenues from the booming oil and gas sector, addressing corruption and promoting equitable development and social services.

The report adds that while political parties campaigned on a variety of issues, constitutional reform and economic growth, particularly transparent and equitable use of oil revenues, were popular themes.

The report states that media pluralism in Guyana remains uneven, with the state-owned Guyana Chronicle and National Communications Network (NCN) seen to be favouring the governing party, while private media face financial pressures and sometimes self-censorship due to political intimidation and advertising dependence.

The Group recommends the development of a media code of conduct for election coverage in collaboration with the Guyana Press Association (GPA) and GECOM.

Social media played a transformative role in the 2025 elections, with an estimated 96% of Guyanese online.

Smaller parties relied heavily on digital campaigning, which provided new avenues for participation but also spread misinformation and disinformation, the report adds.

The Commonwealth Group also recommended that GECOM engage and encourage civil society organisations (CSOs) as an important mechanism for transparency, accountability and democracy, against the backdrop of concerns that civil society actors were being pushed out of civil society advocacy.

“The Group heard concerns about perceived shrinking civic space and the alleged punitive environment in which CSOs now operate, which further raised concerns about the labelling of CSOs as “anti-government,” the report states.

The observers said civil society engagement in the political process was not evident, and GECOM did not have a planned schedule of engagement with stakeholders – from the media to political parties and civil society – as part of its electoral operational plan.

According to the Commonwealth team of observers, there was no deliberate outreach by GECOM or other stakeholders to ensure civil society was meaningfully engaged in the preparations for, and lead-up to, the general and regional elections.

Information on citizen observers was also not publicly available or provided to the Group by GECOM, the report adds.