WIN signals rejection of election results; GECOM says WIN missed deadline to submit polling agents

Last Updated on Saturday, 30 August 2025, 12:23 by Writer

The We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) on Friday hinted that it would not accept the results of next Monday’s general and regional elections because its applications for polling agents were rejected, but the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) said that political party missed the deadline.

“They submitted the names outside of the deadline, outside of the statutorily required period,” GECOM’s Chief Election Officer Vishnu Persaud told Demerara Waves Online News.

In a separate statement, GECOM said categorically “The WIN Party did not comply with this requirement within the prescribed time. Their suggestion that GECOM has failed in its duty is therefore inaccurate and misleading.”

The GECOM administration said the seven-member commission is scheduled to meet on Saturday when WIN’s concern is likely to be considered “even before the emergence of the WIN press release.”

WIN Executive Member Natasha Singh-Lewis, who was among a four-member panel on a Facebook Live update, said her party would not accept the outcome of the September 1 polls. “We cannot and will not accept the results of an election process that is hidden from scrutiny,” she said.

She said the concern was not only relevant to her party but the issue of credible, reliable, transparent and accountable elections should be a concern for all Guyanese whether or not they vote. “Without agents at the polling stations, that right is violated. Democracy itself is violated,” said Ms Singh-Lewis who was up to recently a parliamentarian for the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).

WIN candidate and its election expert, Duarte Hetsberger also said on the Facebook Live that the deadline notice was “deficient” because it did not include the email contact information to which the polling agents’ information should have been sent. He detailed that on Tuesday, August 26 – the day after the deadline – WIN received an email containing the contact information for the Returning Officers of Guyana’s 10 electoral districts. “We began submission on the said day and concluded all our submissions on Wednesday,” said Mr Hetsberger, the then personal assistant to then Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield.

But the GECOM Chief Election Officer rebutted, saying that the particulars – names, addresses, phone numbers – of the Returning Officers were posted on GECOM’s website. Asked if there was any requirement for email addresses to be provided, Mr Persaud said “absolutely not.” “When these laws were made, nobody had emails,” he added.

Addressing other concerns by Mr Hetsberger, the Chief Election Officer said there is no provision for the polling stations to be published in the Official Gazette. Mr Hetsberger said that should have been done, according to law, 20 days before polling day. Mr Hetsberger also claimed that GECOM opened proxy applications late, and “in some cases” late in the notices of polling. He questioned how GECOM could expect “perfection” from political parties while at the same time miss its own statutory and constitutional deadlines. “That is hypocrisy, that is double standards and it cannot stand,” he added.

WIN Executive Member, Tabita Sarabo-Halley said its polling agents were contacted and offered land and other inducements to opt out as WIN polling agents.

That party is calling on regional and international observers to pay keen attention to what is going on.