GECOM well-oiled, ready for elections 2025 – Rohee

Jul 22, 2025 News

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…Alexander says credibility still an issue

Kaieteur News – While preparations continue for this year’s general and regional elections slated for September 1, concerns still linger about the credibility of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to host those elections.

Questions surrounding GECOM’s credibility was the topic of the Caribbean Tea podcast, hosted by Guyanese lawyer, Dr. Vivian Williams, journalist Denis Chabrol and moderator, Kendol Morgan Monday evening.

In the face of credibility concerns, Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) nominated GECOM Commissioner, Clement Rohee is adamant that the commission is well oiled and ready to host the polls.

“There isn’t the chaos both at the level of the commission and at the level of its executive operating arm. I believe we have a well-oiled machinery that is comprised of professionals who are committed to do their job and who are aware that should they be engaged in any activity as some of their predecessors would have done, because the full brunt of the law will be applied,” Rohee said.

On the opposition side was A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) nominated GECOM commissioner, Vincent Alexander.

While the PPP/C commissioner remained adamant that credibility and preparedness are essentially a ‘non- issue’, Alexander sought to address what he described as a public concern.

He claimed that GECOM has taken deliberate efforts to side-step the issue rather than address it, in a bid to avoid public introspection into its internal affairs.

“To be very frank with you, I don’t think that GECOM consciously seeks to address the credibility issue. And there may be two reasons why that is so. One, the credibility issue will in many regards reflects the internal problems that reside in GECOM,” Alexander said.
He continued, “you also have the problem with the administration which for all intents and purposes people seem to align with one set of commissioners as opposed to another set and therefore they too have a problem in terms of speaking to the public and addressing this issue of credibility…”

Nevertheless, Commissioner Rohee did not agree that there’s a crisis of the electoral process or with GECOM.

He asserted “GECOM has the constitutional responsibility to supervise the general conduct of elections in Guyana. So, any reference to the question of credibility goes to the heart of GECOM’s responsibility and that should be the starting point which it would appear to me that the credibility issue is being used as a political football by some political parties.”

According to Rohee, GECOM is steadfastly holding to what the constitution has empowered it to do.

“There should be no question of credibility because GECOM is always acting within the meaning of the law. If GECOM should at any point in time conduct elections outside the meaning of the law, the laws of Guyana, then recourse to that by the courts,” Rohee said.
He added there is also a question on whether the issue is created by a public perception based on the narratives of political opposition or whether it is a reality. He argued that a significant portion of the demographic believes the election is free and fair and this is reflected in the participation at the polls.

“There are hundreds of thousands who believe that the elections are free and fair and they therefore go out to vote. In terms of perception, they are of the perceived view that the system is fair. There are others who are being fed information that the system is not. But that brings us to a very interesting question. Now if you keep telling your people to believe or feeding them the perception,” he said.

Alexander, however had a different take on the issue.

“I don’t agree with that. I think that people understand credible or otherwise that no, if you don’t have a ticket, you don’t have a chance. And therefore, for that reason, we do have a turnout at elections.”

The APNU appointed commissioner said that regardless if people think it is credible or not, there are issues to be addressed. According to Alexander, there are two areas to be focused on to strengthen Guyana’s electoral laws to address credibility.

He explained “The law has two aspects. It has a spirit and it has the letter. And so very often one may contend the letter of the law is being followed, but that does not mean that the spirit of the law is necessarily being followed. And we have a lot of examples in the electoral process where the letter is apparently being followed, but the spirit is not being followed. The question of credibility has to be seen from two perspectives. Not all of what we do for elections is statutory.”

He said there are also a lot of steps to be taken to boost GECOM’s credibility.

“There are lots of administrative actions and therefore a question of credibility cannot be restricted to what happens in relation to the law. It has also to be enshrined in law and so one has to bear that in mind as well. And I think that the fact of the matter is that the extent to which people have question marks about administrative actions and they have question marks about the spirit of the law being upheld, is the extent to which the question mark is one of the credibility of the election,” he said.

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• Clement Rohee, Dr. Vivian Williams, GECOM, Guyana Elections, Vincent Alexander

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