Governance breakdown

Jan 08, 2026 Editorial, News

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(Kaieteur News) – For a government that boasts endlessly about progress, transformation and “One Guyana,” the Irfaan Ali administration appears increasingly uncomfortable with some of the most basic requirements of democratic governance: transparency, legality and respect for constitutional processes. From the unexplained withholding of the 2022 Population and Housing Census to the selective paralysis of key constitutional bodies, the country is witnessing a troubling pattern of rule by convenience rather than rule by law.

Nowhere is this more glaring than in the government’s continued failure almost three years later to publish the results of the national census. In every functioning democracy, census data is public information, not political property. It tells citizens who they are, where they live, and how the country is changing. It informs development planning, public spending, infrastructure, healthcare, education and, critically, elections.

Yet, despite repeated assurances, deadlines and excuses, the census report remains buried. In 2023, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh promised a preliminary report by mid-2024. In October 2024, the Bureau of Statistics said results would be released “soon.” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo later shrugged off responsibility, claiming he had “no information” on the matter. Almost a year later, there is still nothing. No preliminary report. No final report. No credible explanation.

This is not a minor administrative delay; it is a democratic failure. The Carter Center in the lead up to last year’s general elections had flagged concerns about the size of the Official List of Electors—757,690—pointing out that the absence of census data “obscures public understanding of basic population demographics and their potential relation to the size of the voter list.” In any serious democracy, that observation alone would trigger urgency. In Guyana, it is met with silence.

More disturbing is that the opposition and civil society have largely failed to turn this into a national rallying cry. The country stumbled into the September 1, 2025 high-stakes election blindfolded, without the very data that should ground electoral credibility.

Meanwhile, the government armed with granular data from its cash grant exercise enjoyed a lopsided informational advantage. This hoarding of national data feeds suspicion. In a society where politics is shaped by demographic balance, migration and shifting communities, withholding census information inevitably raises questions of manipulation. Fair or not, the perception is unavoidable: that the government sees political value in operating within a fog of ambiguity.

The census is not the only area where constitutional order is being casually undermined. In Region 10, the Regional Democratic Council remains improperly constituted after a tied vote for Chairperson and Vice Chairperson. The law is clear on how such a tie must be broken. Yet the Regional Executive Officer has refused to reconvene the meeting, and the government has failed to intervene. This paralysis exists only in Region 10. Every other RDC is functional. Selective dysfunction is not coincidence; it is policy by omission. At the national level, the same contempt for constitutional norms is evident in the refusal by the government in league with the Speaker of the National Assembly to facilitate the election of the Leader of the Opposition, a constitutionally mandated office. Add to that President Ali’s recent swearing-in of members of the Teaching Service Commission without the required consultations with the Leader of the Opposition, and a clear pattern emerges: constitutional requirements are treated as optional when they are inconvenient.

Taken together, these are not isolated lapses. They form a mosaic of democratic erosion. A government that withholds census data, selectively disables regional governance, bypasses constitutional consultations and centralises power while boasting of progress is not moving forward, it is sliding backward. Governing without accurate population data in a rapidly changing, oil-fuelled society is reckless. Governing while undermining trust is dangerous. Democracy cannot survive on slogans and press conferences, which also not happening. It survives on institutions, information and respect for the rule of law. On all three fronts, this government is failing and the country is paying the price.

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• census, Editorial, Governance breakdown, Irfaan Ali

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