WIN to ask APNU-nominated GECOM commissioners to resign

Last Updated on Friday, 30 January 2026, 10:18 by Writer

The main opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) on Thursday began what could turn out to be a court battle to be represented on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) if the three current opposition-nominated commissioners refuse to resign.

WIN leader Azruddin Mohamed told Demerara Waves Online News that GECOM Chairman Retired Justice Claudette Singh informed him that she had no power to remove any of the commissioners. “The Chair said that is not within her ambit. The Chair said she cannot replace commissioners so we are planning to meet with the three commissioners. I am planning to write them and arrange a meeting,” he disclosed.

Mr Mohamed said he would be requesting a “good faith” meeting with commissioners Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman to ask them to step down to allow him to appoint his commissioners.

Mr Mohamed acknowledged that Mr Alexander has vast experience as an election commissioner even recalling that he had supported him during the controversy over WIN’s symbol for use on the ballot for last year’s general and regional elections.

Though the WIN Leader wants Messrs Alexander, Corbin and Trotman to resign, Guyana’s Constitution requires the President to appoint three of the six commissioners on the advice of the Opposition Leader who first has to consult meaningfully with the parliamentary opposition parties.

In that regards, Mr Mohamed wants to “talk with the commissioners first and see what steps they want to take and then we will plan the way forward with the other parties.”

WIN won 16 parliamentary seats and APNU, which had previously nominated those three opposition commissioners, has 12 seats.

In his letter requesting the meeting, WIN Leader, Azruddin Mohamed, who is also Guyana’s Leader of the Opposition signaled that his party might seek redress in the High Court if the trio does not resign. “WIN maintains that a principled resolution requires either constitutional clarity on the Commission’s ability to function notwithstanding political developments, or a voluntary and good-faith step by the current Opposition-nominated Commissioners to demit office, thereby allowing the identification of Commissioners in whom the present main opposition has confidence,” he said in the January 14 letter.

Mr Mohamed reasoned in that letter that as a matter of constitutional principle and democratic legitimacy, the composition of the Commission, particularly on the opposition side, must reflect the current configuration of the National Assembly.

He conceded that the Commissioners enjoy constitutional tenure and remain in office until lawfully replaced, but contended that those opposition-nominated Commissioners were identified by a “political party which, though still represented in Parliament, no longer commands the largest number of opposition seats and therefore no longer constitutes the main opposition.”

The WIN Leader said the GECOM Chairman informed him that WIN would be eligible to appoint a chief scrutineer.

He said WIN plans to inform the Commission who would be his party’s chief scrutineer.

Also representing GECOM at that meeting, he said, were the Chief Elections Officer Vishnu Persaud and his personal assistant.

GECOM did not say there was a meeting.