Three parties express concern over GECOM’s failure to outline clear Nomination Day procedures

Jul 13, 2025 News

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…Commission says arrangements in place to ensure smooth, transparent process

 

Kaieteur News – Three opposition parties have expressed grave concern over what they consider to be the failure of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to outline clear procedures for Nomination Day scheduled for July 14.

The parties, the Alliance For Change (AFC), the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) and the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) held a joint press conference outside of the Umana Yana, Kingston, Georgetown.

The press conference was held following receipt by the parties of an email from GECOM indicating that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will be allowed to submit its list of candidates second.

As early as Monday, political parties were seen camping outside of the Umana Yana, the venue for the submission of list of candidates on Sunday, July 14. A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) secured its place outside the venue first after which the AFC said it appeared there second and the ALP third.

Leader of the AFC and prominent attorney Nigel Hughes confirmed that APNU was the first to set up outside the venue following the launch of its elections campaign on Sunday.  The AFC followed suit and arrived on Tuesday at around 17:30h.

Hughes said party members upon arrival enquired whether other political parties had arrived to establish their presence there and received a negative response.

“…we went to the security hub to record our presence. The security guard said specifically that she is not authorized to record any presence, and we would have to await the arrival of her supervisor the following morning,” he explained.

Hughes revealed that he personally scanned the location from the Umana Yana to the seawalls and there was no other party in sight besides the APNU. He said that on Wednesday morning, a Mr. Stewart arrived and asked the parties to record their presence, and by this time, two other parties namely the ALP and FGM had arrived. It was then recorded that APNU was first, AFC second, ALP third and FGM at fourth place.

“…he said specifically to my representative when he was recording the presence of the parties upon her inquiry, he said, this is the order of the persons who are out here. Prior to that, we had written to GECOM asking them specifically about the procedure for the reception of the list of candidates on Monday [but] didn’t get a response. We held a press conference yesterday, in which, again, we reiterated the difficulties,” Hughes said.

The AFC leader said he was subsequently informed that APNU will enter Umana Yana from north along High Street while the PPP would enter from West along Younge Street. All other parties he said will have to enter from the seawall road.

As a result, concerns were raised about how the order of presence would be maintained and it was revealed that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) will establish a presence at 18:00h on Sunday at the location and GECOM officials will be there from midnight to record the presence of the political parties.

Hughes reminded that at his party’s press conference on Friday, he had noted that the method employed by GECOM is a recipe for disaster as there were no clear procedures outlined by the Commission. He said that the parties received a letter from the commission saying that it has no formalized process set out for the order of arrival of parties desirous of contesting the elections.

“Against this background, the commission is confronted with the situation where three political parties positioned themselves outside of the compound of Umana Yana, and one party submitted a photograph with an attached text as evidence of the presence of the venue on July 7 as an indication of its position as the second in line to submit its list,” the letter seen by this newspaper said.

The letter said that the representatives of this party that submitted the photograph claimed that they left when it was recognized that GECOM had not yet taken possession of the venue and formally communicated this to the commission, after which they were allocated second place pushing the AFC one step down into third.

“So, we have very, very grave concerns upon my receipt, actually, I was notified of this by a very close political colleague from another party, and upon my receipt of this email, which I shared, I spoke to Ms. Simona Broomes and Ms. Amanda Walton-Desir, here are our concerns, and they will also speak to their respective parties,” the AFC leader said.

In light of the aforementioned, Hughes wrote to GECOM requesting a meeting to address the matter. In the letter dated July 12, 2025 he said, “We note with concern a letter dated 11 July 2025 under the hand of the Chief Election Officer, Vishnu Persaud which catapults another contesting party, the People’s Progressive Party Civic ahead of the Alliance For Change (AFC) on Nomination Day. We wish to underscore the imperative for GECOM to conduct these elections according to proper rules of procedures, where the law is silent on administrative matters, the Commission should resort to custom and practice.”

The letter noted that wherever there is the need for revising any custom and practice, the new procedures must be well advertised, not issued ex post facto. He said that in light of the lack of clear directions on the queuing procedure, and the fact that his party registered its presence with a live stream, the party is requesting a meeting with the Commission to look at additional details on the “Nomination Day procedures such as transfer of the lists from the CEO to the Information Technology team, the order of encoding and timeline for the notice of defective lists and approval of Lists of Candidates no later than Sunday, 13 July 2025.”

Furthermore, the AFC has requested that the encoding of submissions to the Chief Elections Officer be scrutinized by agents of the various parties as well as the international observers to ensure that each List of Candidates is processed in the order of receipt in a fair and transparent manner.

“Madam Chair, this matter requires your urgent attention and we look forward to hearing from you by end of today,” the letter concluded.

Meanwhile, Leader of the ALP Simona Broomes told reporters that the actions of GECOM are a violation of the rights of the electorate and “the disrespect shown by GECOM, (when) we are facing a general and regional election… That letter is very, very embarrassing that GECOM sent to me because I received a letter, a copy of that letter from GECOM stating you have no position, but you’re making a decision.”

She stated that the media was present at the time her party arrived at the venue and she reviewed footage and there was no PPP representative there.

“So, what are you saying to us, that you don’t have to come and wait, just take a picture and you get some text messages, and that is how we’re going into an election. She come looking…that’s a recipe for disaster. And I want to say quite clearly, you know that it is not business as usual,” Broomes stressed.

The politician made it clear that she does not trust GECOM and the Commission must treat all political parties with respect.

Like the AFC, GECOM informed Broomes’ ALP that in light of a party submitting a photograph with text attached as evident that it was outside of the Umana Yana, her party is now fourth in line.

Leader of FGM Amanza Walton-Desir revealed that she had not received any correspondence from GECOM and had to call GECOM for information. It was then she was informed that her party was positioned fifth to submit its list of candidates.

“…and so, the implications for this, they’re dire. I want to point out to you, in real terms, what newer parties, like our Forward Guyana Movement, and, of course, ALP, that we would have had to do in order to be able to compete in these elections. So, for us to compete, you have to qualify for a minimum of six regions, a minimum of six regions at a national and regional level, and then you have to have 175 signatures Max supporting your list,” she explained.

Additionally, there is the national top up list of around 300-400 signatures. So, parties had to go into every region and convince citizens to support them as nominators, and this had to be done for a minimum of six regions.

“I want to be very clear that the attitude of GECOM seems to be to preserve the status quo and to keep us trapped in this winner takes all politics. We’re not the older, larger parties that can go to the phone book and pull people’s signature and so on and so on, as has been the practice. What we have done is real ground work,” she stressed.

Walton-Desir also pointed out that in the event a name is duplicated on the list of candidates, there is a 24-hour window to get a new name from the relevant region. She reminded that not all of the parties have the resources to charter a private plane to visit some areas which may take more than a day to get to, their hard work is vitiated.

“…so, the point remains that the system is broken. GECOM continues to subscribe to a broken system, and this is why we are where we are politically, it is obvious that they are not ready for these elections,” she said.

The politician added that “For the fact that Forward Guyana Movement has not even received a correspondence, as yet, is an indication that GECOM is not ready, and so we’re not waiting until later to raise these concerns with GECOM… with the international community, because Guyanese people are not going to just sit by and take whatever is handed to them anymore. The time for that nonsense is up, and we are going to have to stand up and reclaim our democracy, because this is our country.”

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• AFC, ALP, FGM, GECOM, Guyana Elections, Nomination Day

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