APNU slams ‘lawless’ digital ID rollout

Nov 26, 2025 News

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—Duncan warns Guyana is being led into a “digital cage”

(Kaieteur News) – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is sounding the alarm over what it calls the government’s reckless and unlawful rollout of the new Digital ID system, warning that thousands of Guyanese are already being registered without the legal protections Parliament intended.

In a statement issued by APNU Member of Parliament, Sherod Duncan on Monday, the Opposition said it is “deeply concerned” by Prime Minister Mark Phillips’ admission reported by Demerara Waves that the administration has already begun issuing Digital ID cards even though two crucial pieces of legislation remain inactive: the Digital Identity Card Act, and the Data Protection Act.

Duncan said while APNU supports modernisation and digital transformation, no responsible government should collect biometric data without the legal safeguards meant to prevent abuse. “A major red flag Guyanese cannot afford to ignore.” According to Duncan, the government is now gathering and storing sensitive biometric information from public servants “without the full force of the law, without oversight, and without the firewalls Parliament intended.”

Duncan said this issue does not stand alone. “In recent weeks, APNU has already raised alarms about the Government’s misuse of citizen data, its refusal to operationalise the Data Protection Act, its mishandling of election-related communications in Parliamentary Questions already tabled on the integrity of the Digital Identity ecosystem. Today’s development expands and intensifies those concerns.” The APNU MP said, senior members of the Government, including the Vice President, have publicly announced that the Digital ID will soon be mandatory for accessing government services, securing employment, opening and maintaining bank accounts, remitting money, and potentially for migrant registration and regularisation. Public servants form the first wave. The rest of the population will follow, under a regime that still lacks any active statutory protections.

“These developments raise unavoidable questions: Why is the rollout happening before the laws take effect? Why build the system now, but activate the protections later? Guyana is witnessing the rapid assembly of what experts describe as a “single spine of traceable identity,” linking employment records, banking information, cash-grant delivery, healthcare data, migration status, telecommunications metadata, and even inputs from the expanding national camera network. This unified identity infrastructure is being built without the legal architecture required to safeguard rights, prevent profiling, or ensure accountability,” the APNU MP said.

He added that this concern becomes even more serious when placed in the wider context. “The same administration rushing ahead with this biometric ecosystem has previously misused citizens’ personal data during election campaigns, required bank accounts for cash-grant programmes, creating indirect financial surveillance, and refused to operationalise the Data Protection Act. Worse still, this is the same Government that spent G$2 billion on the 2022 Population and Housing Census and has refused to release the findings to Parliament or to the nation. A government that withholds national data while demanding more intimate personal data from its citizens cannot be trusted with the consolidated power this system creates.”

According to Duncan, there is a glaring contradiction, noting that while the government is racing to impose biometrics on the daily lives of ordinary citizens, it rejects improved biometric safeguards at GECOM, the one place where enhanced verification would actually strengthen the integrity of our elections. “This inconsistency should concern every citizen who values secure, credible, verifiable elections. It must also be noted that once fully assembled, the Digital ID database will eventually intersect with electoral processes, either directly through voter-verification mechanisms or indirectly through cross-matched demographic, residency, and migration data. Without the Data Protection Act in force, without independent oversight, and without full legislative guardrails, APNU believes that the PPP is effectively constructing a digitally centralised, politically vulnerable identity backbone, one that could be manipulated to influence electoral rolls, voter-verification regimes, and the allocation of public resources.”

Duncan asserted that without appropriate safeguards, this could be interpreted as the PPP pushing ahead to quietly establish a corruptible digital database capable of shaping electoral dynamics behind the scenes. He said in this environment, where the Digital ID framework remains unprotected by law, the Data Protection Act is inactive, the Census results are concealed, and the executive branch is rapidly consolidating biometric, financial, and migratory data, Guyana must proceed with extreme caution.

Parliamentary questions

He said to protect citizens, APNU will be filing urgent Parliamentary Questions and Motions requiring the Government to explain the legal authority under which the Digital ID rollout is occurring; to operationalise the Digital Identity Card Act and the Data Protection Act before further expansion; to table the US$34 million Veridos contract and a full audit of its deliverables; and to clarify how Digital ID data will interact with employment systems, banking systems, migration databases, and the expanding national surveillance network. APNU will also press GECOM to explain why improved biometric safeguards for voting are being rejected at the very moment the Government is embracing national biometrics.

Duncan said Guyanese want modern services, but not a system that allows any government to track, profile, or pressure citizens without lawful restraint. “A Digital ID can be a tool for progress. But without the law in effect, it becomes a tool of control. APNU will continue bringing these matters to Parliament. We will continue raising the alarm. And we will continue demanding the legal firewalls, data protections, institutional safeguards, and democratic accountability that every modern society requires. Guyana deserves a digital future, not a digital cage,” the statement concluded.

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• APNU, Digital ID, rollout, Sherod Duncan

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