Latest update June 25th, 2026 9:38 AM
GECOM’s system enables bloated list, voter impersonation – Alexander
Opposition-appointed Commissioner, Vincent Alexander
Kaieteur News – Opposition-nominate commissioner, Vincent Alexander said the flawed systems within the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) continue to create conditions for the electoral list to be bloated and voter impersonation to take place.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by UK-based Guyanese Norman Browne, Alexander underscored concerns regarding the size of the official list of voters (OLE). GECOM announced Saturday that the OLE stands at 757,690 electors.
However, the size of OLE released by GECOM has raised concerns among some sections of society. Alluding to the issue, Alexander said he is not surprised given that the list contains persons registered as of 2008.
“We have a system, where we have not perfected mechanism of taking the dead off the list, internally the registrar of births and deaths sends to GECOM a list of the registered deaths. Once, we get that list, we flag those names, but we have evidence to the fact that that list is deficient and they are persons whose names are on the list who would have died years ago. Thousands of overseas dead are on the list.” Alexander referenced a recent incident where a dead person’s name was detected on the voter’s list.
“I attended a session with GECOM and party agents on Sunday and there is one person who came forward to say look ‘my mother died 13 years ago; her name is on the list how do you explain that?’ ‘Do you expect us to have confidence in the system where known dead are on the list?’” he recalled, adding that GECOM’s response is basically throwing this on the electorate rather than ensuring all the mechanisms are place to do rectify the issue.
“GECOM responds with ‘Well did you attempt during the claims and objections, to make an objection to your mother’s name being on the list.’
Combined with this, Alexander pointed to GECOM’s flawed facial identification process.
He explained that “GECOM does not make it mandatory for persons to have updated ID cards. So, you might find a person who registered when they were 14 years old having the same ID card at age 30 and that it was, they will identify them as they vote. There is no way that, that person looks the same. This is how voter impersonation can occur.”
Further, Alexander noted that in 2020 there was evidence of overseas Guyanese verified as being voted for in Guyana.
“Given the actual number of voters who are in country, probably not more than 500,000…there was indicator that votes may have been cast for absent person. That was confirmed by the verification of the absentee votes by the Chief Immigration Officer,” he stated.
Presidential candidate of the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), Amanza Walton- Desir, had also raised concerns over the size of OLE.
In a live post via the official Facebook page on Tuesday, Walton-Desir noted that the size of OLE should be of concern to all citizens and political parties.
“Somebody explain it to us, why is our official list of electors, the size of population. Our population may have grown but they refused to release the census. Guyanese people wake up and understand what is happening and demand answers. Because I can tell you that if you don’t, what they want is to have elections and stuff those ballot boxes.”
“We have been trying to get information on GECOM and the voter’s list, now we have a situation where, we don’t know how many foreigners are on our list, we don’t know how many Commonwealth citizens are on our list, this is a problem because it means that there are people and through the machinations of the PPP, will get on our list and thwart the will of the people of Guyana, this is serious business” Walton Desir said.
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