Latest update February 14th, 2025 8:22 AM
National Youth Council asserts non-partisan position in electoral process
…announces “Vote Like A Boss” campaign to bring out young voters
By Nicholas Peters
The Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC) has asserted that the body’s collaborative efforts with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are solely aimed at increasing voter education and turnout amongst 
Guyana’s youth population in a non-partisan manner.
This response follows criticism from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) which says that the Commission is overstepping its authority by collaborating with the representative youth body. The criticism was made by the party’s General Secretary, Clement Rohee, on Monday at Freedom House.
Rohee criticised the GNYC for being a “self-anointed” authority on representing Guyana’s youth. He further described the Council as “a creature of external interference, through the (Leadership and Democracy) LEAD Project and nothing more than a group of partisan persons who are attempting to hijack the name Guyana National Youth Council.”
The LEAD project is an initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which focused on the capacity of Guyana’s Parliament, young people, women and Local Government Elections.
Glen Bradbury (USAID), Chief of Party for the LEAD project, was part of the contingent involved in negotiation talks between GNYC and GECOM. Due to his involvement, the PPP purportedly raised “concerns” over the collaboration.
According to Rohee as far as his party is aware, GECOM’s involvement with what he deemed a “partisan body of youths” needed to be decided by GECOM’s Commissioners. Rohee further stated that the Commission was overstepping its authority, as the matter was never discussed at the Commission level.
In an invited comment, GNYC trustee member, Tiffany Daniels, refuted that the Council is working in a partisan capacity for elections. She further clarified that GNYC’s involvement with GECOM focuses on engaging youth in a non-partisan way.
Daniels explained that the Council’s participation in this year’s elections “has nothing to do with partisanship”. She said that USAID was part of the formal proposal process which the Commission deemed acceptable.
According to Daniels, the Council is focusing on the education and distribution of basic electoral information to Guyana’s youth population.
To make this possible GNYC has announced its voter education campaign – ‘Vote Like A Boss’. According to the body, the move towards launching this campaign was requested by Council members, “who wanted to be involved in the political processes without ascribing to any particular party as the GNYC’s mandate is a non-partisan one.”
Moreover, in a statement released by GNYC their voter education campaign is meant to encourage youth participation during elections while providing spaces for young people to engage with GECOM and all political parties. The aim of the campaign is to ensure that young Guyanese understand the mandates of all parties, the voting process and their right to participate in the country’s electoral process.
GNYC’s statement continued to state that; “the Council guarantees its commitment to educating and building the capacity of young people with a view of encouraging more youth involvement in the political and developmental spheres of Guyana.”
The Council is also open to collaborating with other non-partisan groups which aim to increase voter turnout.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, Guyana’s youth make up over 60 percent of the country’s population, while data from various countries suggests that youth participation in elections is less when compared with older citizens.
Speaking to sections of the media, GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally stated that the Commission has given its overall ruling that GECOM must focus on “getting people out to vote”. He also said that he does not think that GECOM needs to go back to the seven Commissioners for approval.
“Empirical observation is revealing that the youth may not be coming out in large numbers, it follows that part of (our) focus is to get people to vote. The civic aspect of the civic and voter education has to be focused on youth,” the Chairman emphasised.
To that end, Dr. Surujbally related that GECOM is open to partnering with any civic organisation or similar collectives to get young people involved in the electoral process through the ballot box.
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