GECOM to decide whether prisoners could vote at upcoming elections

Jun 06, 2025 News

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…resolve other burning issues 

By Shania Williams

Kaieteur News –The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has made several determinations following concerns raised by opposition-nominated commissioners ahead of the September 1, 2025 General and Regional Elections.

At a meeting on Thursday, commissioners deliberated on several matters, including the certificate of employment, domicility, the right of incarcerated persons to vote, stamping of ballots, and the underlining of deceased persons’ names on the voters list. While some issues were resolved, others remain under active discussion and are scheduled to be addressed again at the next meeting on Tuesday.

In both in-person and virtual engagements with the media, Government-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj and Opposition-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander shared their respective views on the outcomes and direction of the discussions. Alexander explained that during the previous meeting, the commission had been unable to discuss several of the key issues due to a lack of response from the Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall. However, AG Nandlall submitted a response in yesterday’s meeting.

Voting by polling agents

One of the critical topics discussed was whether polling agents could vote at polling stations where they are assigned to work but not registered to vote. “That is a matter where we feel that every polling agent should be given an opportunity to have a certificate of employment if he or she is working away from where he or she is entitled to vote,” Alexander said. However, GECOM decided that political parties, not the Commission, are responsible for facilitating such arrangements.

Alexander suggested that the issue could be addressed through a legislative amendment that allows polling agents to vote by certificate of employment or proxy. But this proposal was rejected by the majority of the Commission. Gunraj responded that the practice of political parties facilitating their polling agents’ voting was already long established: “This is an age-old issue. I can say clearly in the 2020 elections [and] 2015 elections, no facilities were made for polling agents who are working with political parties on elections day to vote, except that is put in place by the parties they represent to allow them to vote if they are voting at a place other than the polling station where they are working.”

He added: “This is not a new issue. It is not an issue that came up for the first time. I understand it was an issue that was dealt with since the 2011 elections.”

Gunraj further noted that the Attorney General’s office had clarified that the issue had already been considered and addressed through amended legislation that allows for the appointment of alternate polling agents. He said this particular discussion took 2 to 3 hours of the overall meeting.

Incarcerated persons being allowed to vote

The other matter discussed was incarcerated persons being allowed to vote. Alexander said the GECOM Chair suggested there might be legal restrictions on engaging with prisoners, but the opposition disagreed. “The Chairman sought to suggest that there is some law that forbids the public or anyone from speaking with prisoners, and therefore, we don’t have the facilitation to allow them to vote. We argue that there is no need to speak with prisoners, that the list of the incarcerated can be compiled, the same way in which the list of disciplined services is compiled, and they can vote on that day without us touching the prisoners,” Alexander stated.

Gunraj rebutted by noting that such a move would require specific legal provisions. “This is an issue that requires specific legislation. Prisoners are governed by specific legislation, and as a consequence, to merely say we are going to put a polling station in the prison… Just like how special legislation is put in place to deal with voting on days outside of election day by disciplined service members etc., there is no such facility that is in place in the law to allow voting by prisoners. And as a consequence, that was a conclusion on the discussion on that,” he explained.

Stamping of ballots

Another unresolved issue was the stamping of ballots. According to Alexander, the AG acknowledged that the matter falls within GECOM’s administrative discretion.  “AG Nandlall’s response says GECOM has the prerogative to determine how that matter can be resolved. And so now, it is GECOM to administratively determine how they can deal with the question of ensuring that a ballot has not been stamped, that it is stamped once it’s authentic, before the count is conducted.” Alexander noted that no conclusion was reached on this matter, and it will be discussed again next Tuesday. Gunraj provided background, referencing past confusion over ballot stamping procedures: “You recall in the previous elections there arose an issue where you had a ballot had to be stamped at the top for the general elections and at the bottom for regional elections, and what you have happening is sometimes a presiding officer or chief elections staff stamps the top and does not stamp the bottom.” He added that GECOM has agreed in principle to correct such omissions before ballot separation. “We agreed that that will be an issue that when the ballots are unfolded and before separation, as long as the top half is stamped, the presiding officer will be allowed to stamp the other half to ensure that you have two valid ballots before they are separated.”

Domicility and Commonwealth citizens

The issue of domicility, particularly concerning Commonwealth citizens, was also debated.

Alexander explained: “Again, it has to do with the law specifying that someone has to be resident for a year and domiciled. The practice has been to take the one year and not to consider domicility.” He said the opposition commissioners insisted that domicility should be defined: “We have been unable to come to a conclusion in this matter, and what was last concluded was that the status quo—which is registering people who are one-year residents as Commonwealth citizens—will continue until such time as we can resolve this matter. Of course, that does not point to a resolution before elections.”

Gunraj defended GECOM’s current position.“Since this current cycle of registration started in 2008, Commonwealth citizens who are living in Guyana for in excess of a year and who are here legally were entitled to register in Guyana. This is a provision that is replicated and mirrored in several Commonwealth countries, so it’s not unique to Guyana alone.”

He acknowledged that the question of domicility had been raised, but reiterated that the status quo would remain: “In relation to that, while an issue has arisen, the decision in relation to that is that the status quo of registering the persons in a manner as was done prior or immediately prior to this discussion will continue until such time there is another decision on it.” Gunraj concluded, “Unfortunately, as I have elaborated those issues to you, they attracted [opposition-nominated commissioners] what I would like to call a robust discussion. We resolved all of those issues, I believe, to finality.”

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• 2025 General and Regional Elections, Anil Nandlall, GECOM, prisoners, voters

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