GECOM approves six parties to contest general and regional elections

Jul 19, 2025 News

The six political parties that were approved by GECOM to contest the 2025 General and Regional Elections.

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Friday announced that it has approved the Lists of Candidates for six political parties to contest the September 1 General and Regional Elections.

Seven political parties submitted lists of candidates to contest the upcoming elections on Monday.

Those approved are A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) headed by Aubrey Norton, Alliance for Change (AFC) led by Nigel Hughes, Assembly of Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) led Simona Broomes, Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) headed by Amanza Walton-Desir, Peoples Progressive Party / Civic (PPP/C) led by Bharrat Jagdeo and We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) headed by Azruddin Mohamed.

The approval follows the submission of lists of candidates on Nomination Day held on Monday, July 14 at the Umana Yana.

However, GECOM said after careful examination and processing of the respective lists to ensure that they confirm to the legal requirements, the six parties were approved by the Commission. During the processing of the lists, political parties whose lists contained defects were informed on July 15 and asked to correct and re-submit by July 17.

The re-submissions were received within the required timeline and processed.

GECOM said the decision to approve six of the parties was taken at a special meeting of the Commission held on Friday in keeping with the legal requirements and within the statutory timelines post Nomination Day.

While all of the six aforementioned parties were approved to contest the General Elections, only four have submitted lists to contest in all 10 electoral districts in the Regional Elections. Those parties are APNU, AFC, PPP/C and WIN. Notably, lists of candidates for ALP and FGM were approved by the Commission to contest several regions. ALP will only be contesting in districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 in the Regional Elections while FGM will be contesting in the Regional Elections in districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10.

Notwithstanding these approvals, GECOM urged the Representatives and Deputy Representatives of Lists to notify the CEO in writing of joinder of lists. Parties have until the July 21 to do this. Thereafter, the CEO will gazette and publish the approved lists of candidates on July 23.

During an interview outside of GECOM’s High Street, Georgetown office on Friday afternoon, opposition-nominated GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander disclosed that the Horizon and Star party’s list, headed by Hubert Maloney, was not approved by the commission due to insufficient documentation. He noted that, like other parties, Maloney was written to and informed of the issues with his list and was given a chance to make changes. However, according to the commissioner, Maloney’s response was still insufficient.

When asked about the commission’s agenda for the upcoming week, Alexander said templates for the ballots have to be approved. However, he pointed out that there are several other outstanding matters that require attention.

He said, “We have got some outstanding matters, like what right we have never really concluded on the question of the incarcerated, the question of the overseas ballots, how that will be counted, is still to be concluded. The question of how we deal with the local dead who are not submitted by the Registrar of courts and deaths is still to be to be dealt with. The question of flagging names of overseas Guyanese on the voters list still to be dealt with.”

For his part, government-nominated GECOM commissioner Sase Gunraj that aside from the approval of the political parties’ lists of candidates, the Commission discussed a few matters, while others were deferred to the next statutory meeting on Tuesday.

“The other issue is, now that those lists have been approved, the facility of joinder of lists now arise and obviously, if your list is not approved, you can’t join. So now that you approved lists, that issue of joiner can be considered and there’s also a timeline,” he noted.

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A Partnership For National Unity, Alliance For Change, Aubrey Norton, Azruddin Mohamed, Forward Guyana Movement, GECOM, Simona Broomes, win

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