27,879 first-time voters on roll

Sep 01, 2025 News

…as GECOM now projects final results by September 4

GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Sunday disclosed that of the 757,690 registered voters on the Official List of Electors (OLE), 27,879 are first-time voters who expected to cast their ballots in today’s General and Regional Elections.

At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward explained that the figure captures both persons who recently turned 18 and older individuals who registered for the first time. “I did provide some initial statistics, which essentially only captured those eligible first-time voters 18 years and older, or equal to 18 years and older at this election. But we’ve had registration cycles where we’d have persons older than 18 years old that have registered and are now eligible electors,” Ward stated.

Below is the breakdown of eligible voters and first-time voters by district:

*District*	*Eligible Voters*	*First time voters*
District One	24, 453	2,076
District Two	42, 596	1,733
District Three	116,876	4,107
District Four	323,436	9,580
District Five	50,796	1,637
District Six	111,554	3,267
District Seven	17,846	1,284
District Eight	9,192	821
District Nine	22,481	1,883
District Ten	38,460	1,491
TOTAL	*757,690*	*27,879*

Notably, Ward was also asked about the increase in the OLE, which has moved from 661,000 in 2020 to 757,690 in 2025. In response to this, GECOM’s Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) Anneal Giddings explained, “Since 2020 there have been several cycles of continuous registration phases one and two and in between claims and objections all of those will be responsible for what I should say a historic trend because if you look at OLE dating backwards it hovers around 100,000 odd every cycle of elections.”

Notably, GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud who was also present at the press conference said that the Secretariat can provide a breakdown of the figure through the PRO at a later time.

Declaration of results

Moreover, GECOM’s CEO was also asked if he still confident the results will be announced by September 2, a date he had earlier stated. Firstly, Persaud noted that the timeline of the results declaration will be based on practicality. He explained that at the time he made that pronouncement of September 2nd, he did not consider the predecessor task of the act of tabulations, which involves the scanning and uploading of the statements of polls. As such he stated, “I do not see that we can complete that exercise in less than eight hours especially for the higher populated regions maybe in districts one, and seven and eight we might be able to do that.”

He added that for the other districts the declaration would have to wait until September 3. Persaud noted also, “The issue of request for recount was not factored into that…all being equal we now should be able to have declarations in the districts by the evening of the third (September 3rd)…again provided that there are no request for recount, there is always that possibility.”

“But once we have the district declarations in place for all the districts by the evening of the third and all of those declarations get to me by the morning of the fourth (September 4th), the national declaration, the Commission should be able to make that,” the CEO said. In terms of the mechanisms GECOM have in place, Persaud noted that the equipment that will be used for scanning and upload and tabulation of the results are functional and have been tested at all of the tabulation centres. He also stressed that GECOM has contingencies in place for possible network or electricity disruptions.

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Elections, Electors, first time voters, GECOM, Vishnu Persaud

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