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GECOM approves appointment of AFC, WIN, FGM and ALP polling agents

Aug 31, 2025 News

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has approved the appointment of polling agents from all political parties that submitted their lists after the official deadline.

This decision was made during a statutory meeting held on Saturday, led by GECOM Chairperson Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh and attended by all commissioners; opposition-nominated commissioner Vincent Alexander told Kaieteur News.

Alexander explained that several parties missed the deadline for submitting their lists but were granted approval due to the critical role polling agents play in ensuring transparency during the voting process.

“There is a provision of law that allows us to change the deadline based on the preservations of the law because the view was the role of the polling agents were so important that once we could accommodate them, we should though they were late in their application,” he said.

Commissioner Alexander confirmed that late submissions from the Alliance For Change (AFC), Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), and Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) would be accepted. “The only two parties that met the deadline were the PPP/C and APNU,” he said.

Government-nominated commissioner Manoj Narayan also weighed in, saying, “The lists were submitted out of time, but GECOM has approved an extension. The parties will be formally notified that their lists have been accepted. Whatever was submitted has been approved.”

This move follows public complaints by the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, which issued a statement on Friday urging GECOM to approve its list of polling agents. WIN had accused the Commission of failing to approve agents for 10 districts, warning that the party would not accept the results of the September 1 election if their agents were barred.

Party candidate Duarte Hetsberger claimed the deadline notice was deficient, as it did not include email contact information for Returning Officers. He explained that WIN received the relevant contact information only on August 26, one day after the official deadline, and completed their submissions the following day.

WIN candidate Natasha Singh-Lewis added, “No agents mean no eyes, no witnesses, no accountability, at the very place where votes are cast and counted. If GECOM bars out polling agents they are creating a dangerous gap, one wide enough for dishonesty and fraud to creep in,” she expressed.

Notwithstanding the claims made by WIN, GECOM in a subsequent statement said that WIN’s assertions are untrue. The commission said the Chief Elections Officer sent an email dated August 11, 2025, to the election agents of all contesting political parties reminding them that “Party Agents shall “give notice in writing of every appointment of an assistant agent, counting agent, polling agent, and alternate polling agents, stating the name and address of the person appointed”, NO LATER THAN THE 7TH DAY BEFORE ELECTION DAY, to the Returning Officer.”

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