Opposition walkout forces abrupt end to GECOM meeting

Jun 04, 2025 Peeping Tom

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—critical matters missing from agenda 

Kaieteur News- A scheduled meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was abruptly adjourned on Tuesday after opposition-nominated commissioner, Desmond Trotman walked out in protest.

The walkout came after commissioners were informed that several critical electoral issues raised in the previous meeting were not included on the agenda.

This was confirmed by commissioner Vincent Alexander during a brief interview with Kaieteur News following the meeting at GECOM headquarters in Kingston, Georgetown.

According to Alexander, the meeting came to an abrupt end due to the lack of a quorum after Trotman walked out the meeting. Trotman’s walkout followed the commission’s announcement that several concerns raised by opposition-nominated commissioners during the previous meeting, held last Thursday, were not included on the agenda.

“The chairperson started the meeting by saying, ‘let’s look at the minutes.’ I stopped and said, ‘madam chair, before you look at the minutes, this agenda of the meeting does not have the items they promised to check,’” Alexander recalled.

He continued, “She then responded saying because the Attorney General had not responded, that’s the reason why the matters are not on the agenda.”

Alexander explained that the issues expected to be addressed included: the stamping of the ballot, dual citizenship for Commonwealth citizens, the incarcerated being allowed to vote, underlining of overseas Guyanese on the voters’ list, provision for party polling staff to vote, and methodology for flagging deceased persons on the list.

“These matters should be on the agenda for discussion. They were not on the agenda,” he emphasised.

Alexander noted that the matters had been raised in writing several weeks ago, but to date, the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, S.C., has not provided a response.

According to Alexander, GECOM Chairperson Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, indicated that the exclusion of the issues from the agenda was due to the pending response from the attorney general. “She stated the reason they were not on the agenda is because the AG had not responded to the matters,” he said.

However, Singh assured the commissioners that responses would be available by Thursday. Despite that promise, tensions rose further when Trotman insisted the issues should have at least been included for reporting and preliminary discussion.

“Commissioner Trotman then said, even if you didn’t have the responses, you should have the matters on the agenda and report on the matters. Because she didn’t report on the matters, she was going to start on the discussions in the minutes. It’s only when we enquired… but then she said let’s look at the minutes,” Alexander recounted.

“Trotman said you can’t do this; the matters should at least be on the agenda. He said that he’s not prepared to stay in a meeting where the issues that were reported are not included in the discussion. So, because he left, there was no quorum.”

Alexander explained that GECOM’s rules require a minimum of two commissioners from each side to constitute a quorum. “In GECOM, you need two [commissioners] from each side to institute a quorum, so once he left, there was no quorum,” he clarified. As a result, the meeting was adjourned to Thursday, with a commitment from the chair that the outstanding matters would be included on the agenda.

During the last meeting, opposition-nominated commissioners eventually agreed to the September 1 election timeline, despite initially arguing that the decision had been made unilaterally and did not align with GECOM’s internal planning. Commissioners Alexander, Trotman, and Charles Corbin also contended that the commission would not be adequately prepared to hold elections by that date.

However, while the new work plan was eventually discussed and agreed upon, Alexander emphasized that several key issues remain unresolved. “The issues which were outstanding were stamping of the ballot, the number of dead persons on the list… and those matters I contended are critical to a free and fair election, which have not been concluded,” he told Kaieteur News.

He said these matters were not included in the current plan but flagged by the opposition as essential, were supposed to be addressed in Tuesday’s meeting, an expectation that was not met.

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• Charles Corbin, GECOM Chairperson Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, GECOM headquarters, Guyana Elections Commission, Trotman

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