Low voter turnout at elections – parties; PPPC says ahead of APNU, WIN

Last Updated on Tuesday, 2 September 2025, 22:35 by Writer

Guyana’s general and regional elections on Monday were marred by a low voter turnout, but the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) believed that it clinched victory while A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) said it was more of the incumbent party’s supporters who stayed away from the polls.

“There is a lower voter turnout than in 2020 but it’s worst in some areas and the city is one of those”, PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo told a briefing with members of the media.

Checks at a number of polling stations in southern and eastern Georgetown revealed unofficial accounts that many people did not come out to vote in the elections that turned out to be a three-way contest with the newcomer We Invest in Nationhood (WIN).

WIN leader Azruddin Mohamed told Demerara Waves Online News that he was confident that when the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) declares the results, he would emerge as the minority President of Guyana. “Exceptionally well as we can see from releases out there…We are looking at winning the presidency and you get a plurality and we think that is possible,” he said.

Mr Jagdeo said the unofficial results that were now coming in proves that his party would be cruising to victory when GECOM declares the official results. “The trend that we see now confirms what we knew before the elections and we said to some people, and we expect that trend to hold from the polls that we had,” he said. He said APNU would “have a very, very difficult night” as voters have picked PPP, WIN and APNU. “That party (APNU) will have some serious introspection to do…They made a serious miscalculation. They were hoping that WIN will damage the People’s Progressive Party and somehow lead to a minority government,” he said. Mr Jagdeo said WIN took away support from APNU and small numbers from PPP.

He said a significant number of persons stayed away from APNU’s base, with many opting not to vote for the PPP because there was no good alternative to that party, and others decided against politics.

APNU presidential candidate, Aubrey Norton also said there was a lower turnout, with reports indicating that was more prevalent in PPP areas. “The turnout is low. In our strongholds, we’ve seen reasonable turnout. We didn’t see the kind of turnout that you would normally see in PPP strongholds,” he said.

He said 107 Indians from the Plaisance-Ogle area, 37 Bangladeshis from Diamond and a few Warraus were registered to vote in Guyana. Asked if they would be sufficient to change the outcome of the elections, he said “you would never know until you get the results.”

Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes said the fewer persons, who participated in Monday’s elections, demonstrated what people thought about the political parties. He said the voting process appeared uneventful. He said the low voter turnout was quite a strong statement from the population at a time of the most expensive election, most observers and new entrants to the political landscape. “It is either the list is bloated or the population has rejected most of the existing parties that offered themselves and, therefore, we have to look at what might have led to the lack of interest in the process when the country has so much money. A low turnout is a rejection of all of the competitors,” he said.