Why the electoral system poses challenges for small parties?

Jun 25, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – In Guyana’s 2020 General and Regional Elections, a total of 460,352 valid votes were cast. Based on the established electoral system, this translated into an electoral quota—the number of votes required to secure one of the 65 seats in the National Assembly—of just over 7,000 votes per seat. This figure is crucial because it sets the bar that any party, large or small, must cross to automatically secure a seat in the National Assembly.

The outcome in 2020 was as follows: the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPPC) secured 33 seats, the APNU+AFC coalition got 31 seats, and the remaining one seat went to a joinder list comprising three small parties—the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), A New and United Guyana (ANUG), and The New Movement (TNM). Importantly, the combined votes of these three parties did not reach the electoral quota, yet they managed to win one seat. In fact, the combined votes of all the small parties did not reach the electoral quota. But the joinder list secured a lone seat because of how Guyana’s seat allocation system deals with surplus votes.

Seats in the National Assembly are distributed based on how many votes a party wins relative to the electoral quota. The first stage allocates seats based on whole multiples of the quota, while the second stage distributes any remaining seats based on the largest surplus of votes. This is how the joinder list, even without crossing the quota threshold, managed to clinch a single seat.

But what about if a joinder list gains more than one seat? How then are these seats allocated among the various parties? This was clarified in a letter published in another newspaper yesterday. It’s important to note that the formula for how seats are divided within a joinder list only kicks in if more than one seat is won by that list. This means that if, say, the joinder list had won two or more seats, then the total votes for the combined list would be divided by the number of seats the joinder parties obtain and an electoral quota specific to the joinder list would be determined. Based on this quota, the seats earned by the joinder would be allocated relative to the individual tallies of the respective parties to the joinder list.

However, in 2020, only one seat was won by the joinder list. Therefore, by law, GECOM could only assign that seat to a single party—in this case, the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) which obtained the highest number of votes of the parties that comprised the joinder.

What happened afterward—namely the rotation agreement where the seat was to be shared among the three parties—was strictly an internal arrangement among the constituent parties of the joinder list. GECOM had no authority over that rotation arrangement, and neither did the Speaker of the National Assembly. Indeed, after LJP demitted the seat as part of the agreed rotation, it went to another party within the list, which refused later to cede the seat to ANUG when its turn came. This highlights the legal and practical limits of these internal arrangements—they rely entirely on good faith and are unenforceable by the Guyana Elections Commission or the National Assembly.
This brings us to the looming 2025 elections. The 2020 figures make one thing abundantly clear: it will be extremely difficult for small parties to win a seat outright unless they can muster at least 7,000 votes. That is the minimum threshold under the electoral quota system, assuming there is only a marginal increase in the total valid votes cast.

One emerging political force, Team Mohamed, has already generated significant buzz and appears to be the most viable small-party contender heading into 2025. It is already causing concern in the ranks of the PPPC, an indication of early traction and public visibility. But in Guyana, early appearances are deceiving and the electorate can be cruel to small parties.

Even if Team Mohamed performs better than all other small parties (excluding the AFC), it is still unlikely to surpass the 7,000-vote threshold. This means its chances of entering the National Assembly would depend, as with the 2020 joinder list, on whether a surplus seat remains unallocated after the major parties have claimed their shares.

Given the likelihood that only one surplus seat might be available, Team Mohamed may find itself in the same situation the 2020 joinder list did—hoping to grab that final seat on a surplus basis. But unlike the 2020 parties, Team Mohamed has ruled out forming a coalition. This may also be its position in terms of a joinder list arrangement. While this independent stance might appeal to voters seeking a clean break from traditional alliances, it also reduces the party’s strategic options for entering Parliament. If they fail to cross the electoral quota and no surplus seat is available, they walk away empty-handed.

However, of all the small parties Team Mohamed appears to have the best chance and therefore once it obtains the highest number of votes of all the small parties, and once one seat is available, that seat is likely to go to it with or without a joinder arrangement in place. Therefore, either in or outside of joinder list, Team Mohamed is likely to gain any seat that is to be allocated based on surplus votes. But do not tell that to Team Mohamed. The new party is most likely of the view that it is going to win the Presidency outright, as so many others before it deluded themselves into believing.

.(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• electoral system, guyan Elections, Liberty and Justice Party, Peeping Tom, small parties

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