Nomination Day in Guyana

Jul 17, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Nomination Day last Monday brought out the party faithful. They sang, danced and waved their flags through the streets of Georgetown and they wended their way to the Umana Yana where their leaders handed over their list of candidates. But at the head of marches to submit the list were the leaders of the parties. This should not have been since by law it is the persons who signed as nominating the persons on the List that are treated as the submitters of the List of each party.

Under Guyana’s mixed electoral system of proportional representation, parties must submit different types of lists. The first is Geographical Constituency Lists. Guyana has 10 geographical constituencies, each corresponding to one of the administrative regions. These 10 constituencies elect 25 Members of Parliament (MPs) in total. Each party contesting a constituency must submit a list containing two more names than the number of seats allocated to that constituency. For example, if Region 4 (Demerara-Mahaica) has 7 seats, the list must contain 9 candidates.

The law allows parties to submit two names more than the number of seats being contested in each geographical constituency for a very practical and democratic reason: to ensure continuity, flexibility, and fairness in the event of withdrawals, death, or disqualifications of candidates before Election Day.
The second type of list is the National Top-Up List. This list is used to allocate the remaining 40 seats (or more, in certain situations) in the National Assembly, to ensure proportionality across the country. Each party must submit a separate top-up list containing at least 42 names. The Presidential candidate must be clearly designated on this top-up list and on no other list.

Each list of candidates must be supported by persons who are themselves registered electors. Specifically, the National Top-Up List must be supported by the signatures of no fewer than 300 and not more than 330 registered voters. For each of the ten regions (which are also the geographical constituencies), each list must be supported by no fewer than 150 and no more than 175 registered voters whose names appear on the official list of electors for that constituency at the time of submission.

Each party’s list must also ensure that at least one-third of the total number of candidates on the national top-up list is women. The same one-third rule applies collectively to all geographical constituency lists. Each party must contest at least six of the ten geographical constituencies, and those must collectively represent at least thirteen of the twenty-five seats.

Each candidate on a list must be a registered elector in Guyana; qualified to be elected to the National Assembly; and must consent in writing to be included on the list via a statutory declaration made before a justice of the peace or other legally authorized official.

Candidates may appear on one geographical constituency list and also on the top-up list, but not on multiple constituencies lists or multiple parties’ lists.
After receiving the Lists, the Chief Election Officer must post one copy of each submitted list outside his office. He must also examine the lists for compliance and submit them along with a report to the Elections Commission. The Commission may find a list defective if it lacks the required number of signatories. Or if a candidate appears on more than one list. Or if there is insufficient female representation. Or if the list bears a misleading or no title.
If a list is found defective, the representative and deputy representative of that list are notified and given time to correct the defects. If the Commission is satisfied with the corrections, the list is approved. If not, it is rejected. A rejected list can be appealed to the High Court, which must rule before the Commission publishes the final list of candidates.

The Guyana Elections Commission must then publish no later than the 23rd day before election day the approved list titles; the candidate names and the assigned party symbols. This is done via the Official Gazette and may be supplemented by other public notices.

It should be noted that lists may be withdrawn, but only before approval by both the representative and deputy representative. A deceased or withdrawn candidate is deleted from the list. Lists may also be joined (for seat distribution purposes only) upon proper written notice, no later than the 25th day before election day.

Nomination Day is therefore not about simply parading your candidates and supporter. It is the legal foundation for contesting Guyana’s national and regional elections. This is why for political parties, proper preparation for Nomination Day is essential to remaining on the ballot and ultimately, to winning seats in the National Assembly.

(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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• Elections, Geographical Constituency Lists, Nomination Day, Peeping Tom, Umana Yana

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